The American technology conglomerate Microsoft has announced a new view dedicated to sign language for its Teams video conferencing platform. According to The Verge, this new feature allows sign language users to select up to two videos of other participants to star in a central location, allowing designated signers to be visible throughout the meeting. Microsoft says Teams users can enable the feature for all meetings. or on a meeting-by-meeting basis, which is particularly useful for non-hearing-impaired signers. If they are internal to the company, sign language interpreters can be pre-assigned before the start of a meeting. However, external interpreters can only be assigned during a meeting via the Accessibility tab in the app settings. Microsoft does not provide sign language interpreters for Teams meetings, The Verge reported. Signer priority video streams can still be pinned without interfering with them as they default to the highest quality uncropped ratio. When a presentation is shared, the priority stream changes, but it still retains its larger size and higher video quality, making it easier to identify other participants. The sign language view is also personal to the user — other call participants will not be alerted or have their own Teams view changed. Microsoft also announced a new sticky preferences pane for Teams.
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