Zoom Client Meetings Security

You may be aware that, starting on 4 April 2020, quite correctly Zoom Client Meetings have imposed a further level of security on meetings and events. This article discusses any accessibility implications regarding these, which should not take me too long to write because there are none.

Applying Passwords.

For all Basic users on free accounts and accounts with a single licensed user, Zoom meetings may require an additional password when setting up a meeting. This option is enabled by default.

There are no accessibility difficulties here and, if you had previously used such a password, JAWS will just respond in the same way as it always has. When scheduling a meeting, a password field is available. You can either accept the default one or change it to something of your choosing.

Meeting invitations including links for people to join already contain the password as part of the link so there should be no difficulty in this regard. They can simply activate the link so as to join the meeting.

Waiting Room Access.

The area which perhaps is a little different is Waiting Room access although it has always been present in the Zoom Client.

Zoom is enabling the Waiting Room feature by default. Waiting Room allows the host to control when a participant joins the meeting.

Waiting Room is one of the best ways to control who’s entering your Zoom meeting by giving you the option to admit participants individually or all at once. Zoom highly recommends using this feature to secure your meetings and prevent unwanted participants if a link is shared publicly.
If you do not want to use Waiting Room, you can disable it for your own meetings, an individual group on your account, or the entire account. This can be achieved in Settings for your account described below. Waiting Room can also be enabled or disabled at the time of scheduling and during a meeting.

Should you choose to use the Waiting Room feature, here is how to admit people using JAWS.

When a person attempts to join a meeting, he or she is placed in the Waiting Room. If screen-reader alerts are enabled, you will hear that a person is in the Waiting Room.

Press ALT+U so as to display the Participants Panel.
You should be focused in the list of participants.

Press Shift+Tab repeatedly from the Participants List. If people are in the Waiting Room, you should hear JAWS announce the presence of one or two Buttons: Admit All and Admit. If only one other participant is waiting, only the Admit button is spoken.

Pressing Shift+Tab once more will set focus to the list of people in the Waiting Room. This works in exactly the same way as lowering hands or unmuting users in the Participants List. Press Down Arrow so as to select the name of the person to admit to the meeting, then press Tab once to reach Admit. Finally, press the Space Bar.

Please note: there is no spoken alert advising you that a person is now in the meeting. You will need to Tab repeatedly until you reach the Participants List and check this.

Finally if necessary, press ALT+U to close the Participants List.

People Who Have Raised a Hand.

If people have raised hands during a meeting, it is worth noting that they should appear close to, or at the top of, the Participants List. Press the Home key by itself to reach the top of the list. The JAWS scripts now contain an audio cue as you move through the list to advise you of those people who have their hand raised. This should provide a blind person with a very quick overview as to the status of raised hands and is highly effective in managing large conferences.

Locating a participant with a hand raised can be achieved with the arrow keys, whereupon you can press Tab once to lower the hand or, to unmute or apply other options. As a side note, in the Other Options category, you can send a person back to the Waiting Room should you wish to do that.

Disabling Text Chat.

Particularly when working in large groups, it may be prudent on your part to disable text chat messages. If for example you have a guest speaker, it is extremely disconcerting for that person if messages are appearing in the text chat area which are disrespectful and can spoil the delivery of such a presentation. The JAWS scripts provide a high level of control over alerts and messages, so they can easily be filtered out globally if desired. It is when these messages are reviewed later that it could be embarrasing.

To disable chat, select the General category from Settings in the Zoom Meetings Client.

When selected, press Shift+Tab once to reach the link entitled "View More Settings Open in your default browser". Press Enter.

Navigate to the Heading: entitled "Chat" and you will find it can easily be disabled by working with the options underneath.

Happy Zooming!