Which video conferencing platform is better for deaf participants, Webex Teams or Zoom? If you are a deaf person or need to conduct a video conference call with someone who is deaf, you’re probably trying to find the best platform for the discussion.
What you’ll want to look for is accessibility. Which video conferencing platform offers the most accessibility to disabled users, especially those who are hard of hearing? That is the question we will attempt to answer in this article.
The two most popular platforms right now are Webex Teams and Zoom. They became very popular during the recent pandemic because more people were stuck at home. Let’s see which one is better for deaf people.
Webex Teams
Cisco Webex calls itself the leading enterprise software solution for conducting online meetups and video conferences. It is closely connected to Microsoft Outlook via the Webex Productivity Tools package. With a combination of these tools, Webex provides users with several different levels of accessibility. Hearing and seeing impaired users can both benefit from it.
When you have a deaf person on a Webex video conference call, you can have a human captioner type all the spoken words into the media viewer window on the screen. You can use this as an alternative to a live interpreter or as an extra way for the deaf person to see the words that were spoken.
Sometimes a deaf person might want to look back at the captions to review what was said. Webex offers transcription services to any user who has enabled the “Network-Based Recordings” feature. But if the deaf person prefers to look at the ASL interpreter’s hands only, they will have a clear picture of them.
When someone speaks on a video call, the software automatically will show their video over everyone else’s video feed. But if you want to keep the interpreter’s video feed on the top to see their hands, you can “pin” the video to stay on top. Then you can still hear the words of the speaker while watching the hands of the interpreter.
Zoom
Zoom is rated number one for accessibility. It has a plethora of features to make it more accessible to the disabled community. Firstly, it has an automated captions feature, which translates the spoken words without the need for a human captioner or translator. Of course, the automated captioner feature is not 100% accurate. You’re much better off with a human ASL interpreter to ensure the accuracy of what was spoken.
Zoom makes it easy for deaf participants to see the interpreter’s hands. It lets participants adjust the size of their video feeds, so the interpreter’s video feed is larger than the other feeds. And if they want to look back on what was interpreted, they can record the live feeds and play them later. Use the cloud recording option for the best playback quality.
To make the interpreter’s video larger, right-click on the window and choose “Spotlight Video.” If you want to switch back to the speaker, right-click on the window and choose “Remove Spotlight.” Then go to the speaker’s window and choose “Spotlight Video.” It is a very straightforward process and should be simple enough for anyone to understand.
If you want to turn on the automatic captioner for the speaker’s video and look at the interpreter’s window simultaneously, you can resize both windows to be the same size next to each other. There are just so many options to utilise for deaf people like Languagers provides.
The Verdict
In the end, the choice comes down to which platform people are comfortable with the most. Since Zoom continues to be the dominate video conferencing platform, you’ll come across more people who use it. So, you mine as well learn how to use it yourself.
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