Making hybrid work accessible means using the accessibility features already in Microsoft 365 and switching them on for everyone: live captions and transcription in Teams meetings, accessibility checks in Outlook, Immersive Reader across the apps, and wellbeing tools in Viva Insights. For many employees with disabilities, these tools decide whether they can take a full part in the team or get left out of the conversation.
Hybrid and remote working have made workplaces more inclusive, because recruitment no longer depends on where someone lives or whether they can get into an office every day. There is still work for employers to do to make digital workspaces accessible to colleagues with disabilities, and much of it is configuration rather than new spending.
Online meetings are at the centre of hybrid work, so they are the best place to start. Teams has several features that help colleagues who are deaf or hard of hearing, and they also help anyone working in a noisy place or joining in a second language.
Live captions show real-time, automatically generated text of what is being said, with the speaker's name. Each participant can turn them on for themselves during a meeting. In the Teams admin center, live captions are controlled by a per-user meeting policy, and by default users are allowed to turn them on, so check that nobody has switched this off. Live captions are not saved after the meeting.
Live transcription also converts speech to text and identifies each speaker, but the transcript is kept. After the meeting it is stored with the recording, where people can search it and catch up on anything they missed. For a meeting to be transcribed, the organiser's meeting policy must allow transcription, as must the policy of the person who starts it.
Live translated captions let attendees read captions in their preferred language. This needs the meeting organiser to have a Teams Premium licence.
Hybrid work isn't all video calls, and email is still one of the main ways people communicate. Outlook includes an Accessibility Checker that finds issues such as missing alt text on images and suggests fixes. Outlook runs it automatically in some situations, for example when you are writing to a large audience or when a recipient has said they prefer accessible content, and the settings are under File, Options, Accessibility. Dictation in Microsoft 365 also lets people write emails and documents by voice.
Immersive Reader reads text aloud and highlights it as it goes, and lets people change text spacing and focus on a line at a time. It helps colleagues with dyslexia, difficulty focusing or some visual impairments, and it is available across Microsoft 365, including Word, OneNote, Outlook, Teams and SharePoint.
Viva Insights gives each employee private insights into their own work patterns, with suggestions for protecting focus time and taking breaks. These personal insights are visible only to the individual. Features include:
Some personal insights are available to all Microsoft 365 users. Features such as the virtual commute need the Insights by MyAnalytics service plan, which comes with Office 365 E1, E3 and E5, and premium insights need a Viva Insights licence.
The intranet is often the first place people go for policies, news and HR information, so it needs to work for everyone. Modern SharePoint pages work with screen readers and keyboard navigation, but content editors still need to add alt text to images, use proper headings, write descriptive link text and avoid putting important information only in images. We build those standards into the content guidelines and editor training on our SharePoint intranet projects.
Our hybrid working technology guide covers the wider set of tools for hybrid teams.
No. Live captions are part of Teams meetings and users can turn them on unless an admin has disabled them in the meeting policy. Live translated captions, where attendees read captions in a different language, need the organiser to have a Teams Premium licence.
Live captions are not saved. If you need a record, turn on transcription. The transcript is stored with the meeting recording and can be searched and reviewed afterwards.
Some personal insights, such as quiet time and booking focus sessions, are available with an active Exchange Online account. The virtual commute and similar features need the Insights by MyAnalytics service plan that comes with Office 365 E1, E3 and E5. Manager, leader and premium insights need a Viva Insights licence.
Use the Accessibility Checker in Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It lists issues such as missing alt text, poor colour contrast or missing table headers, and explains how to fix each one. Admins can configure Word, Excel and PowerPoint on Windows to run the checker automatically while people edit.
If you would like help configuring Microsoft 365 or your intranet so it works for everyone, get in touch or read more about our Microsoft 365 services.