[Blind-Gov] The accessibility of soft phones?

[blind at trailstone.com]

Hi all,
I asked around at my federal agency. A number of people have moved to soft phones.
However, the tool we currently using is Microsoft Lync version 2016. Some also call it skype.
However, many blind employees have found soft phone functionality inaccessible when using JAWS.
My agency is planning to move to M365, so MS Teams will replace skype. I find the client version of MS Teams would be accessible in regards to soft phone calls to use, but there are other MS teams functionality I find inaccessible. Especially the web version. The unfortunate part is M365 will not be deployed to my agency's main computer network until late 2024 if not later.


Graham 
blind at trailstone.com
NFB Central Maryland Chapter, Board Member
NFB of Maryland Website and Technology Committee, Member
LCB graduate, 2016

-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-Gov <blind-gov-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Annette Carr via Blind-Gov
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2023 5:56 PM
To: 'List for blind government employees' <blind-gov at nfbnet.org>
Cc: amcarr1 at verizon.net
Subject: Re: [Blind-Gov] The accessibility of soft phones?

Interesting, I did not consider Team's calling feature to be a Softphone, but Dave you are right, it is.  I agree, it works fairly well.  I have not tried to call someone other than those on my network.  I have no idea if and/or how to call someone by their phone number.  Once you make the call, it feels pretty much like a meeting.  I do not know what version of Teams we are using, but I am using JAWS 2022 without the scripts.  They will not approve the use of the scripts. 

HTH,
Annette

-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-Gov <blind-gov-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of David Andrews via Blind-Gov
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2023 5:03 PM
To: List for blind government employees <blind-gov at nfbnet.org>
Cc: David Andrews <dandrews920 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Blind-Gov] The accessibility of soft phones?

We use the softphone in Microsoft Teams and I find it to be accessible.  I have had more of a mixed experience with Jabber.

Dave

At 07:58 PM 6/9/2023, you wrote:
>Good evening, I work for the veterans health administration at the 
>Truman VA hospital in Columbia, Missouri, several of our staff are 
>getting prepared to do periodic telework a couple of days a month. And 
>everybody is transitioning to laptops, so that when they either 
>telework or rotate from one station to another they don’t have to 
>reload everything and they just take their computer. There’s also 
>include starting the use of soft phones.
>Does anyone use soft phones and if so, are there any ones that are 
>particularly accessible? Speci Specifically for someone who is an 
>exclusive jaws user? And only navigates using the keyboard? Thanks, 
>Dacia. Sent from my iPhone


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