[GUI-Talk] Audio Sharing With Zoom: A "Work-Around" Fixes the Problem

[Curtis Chong]

Greetings and salutations:

 

In an August 12 email (copy shown below) sent to the Zoom accessibility
team, I reported a bug with Zoom having to do with audio sharing. I reported
that if you routed your screen reader (in my case, JAWS for Windows) to a
sound device that was different from the one being used by Zoom, everyone in
the Zoom meeting could hear your screen reader talking when audio sharing
was activated. Needless to say, I found this bug to be quite vexing when,
for example, it came time to play the Presidential Release at a virtual
National Federation of the Blind chapter meeting. I reported this problem to
the fine folks at Zoom, and they spent a couple of hours working with me to
verify that yes, I did have a problem.

 

I have now been given clearance to distribute a link to a 64-bit (and yes,
current) version of Zoom which the folks at Zoom call a "work-around." This
64-bit version of Zoom (at least on my system) does fix the problem where
your screen reader is heard by everyone even though you have directed it to
a different sound card.

 

Here is the link.

https://zoom.us/client/5.8.0.1324/ZoomInstaller.exe?archType=x64

 

As I say, this version fixes the problem for me. Hopefully, it will also fix
the audio sharing problem for others.

 

With best wishes,

 

Curtis Chong

 

________________________________________

 

From: Curtis Chong chong.curtis at gmail.com <mailto:chong.curtis at gmail.com>  

Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2021 12:57 PM

To: access at zoom.us <mailto:access at zoom.us> 

Subject: Definite Audio Bug With the Latest Zoom: Version 5.7.5

Importance: High

 

Greetings:

 

As a totally blind person who uses a screen reader called JAWS, I regret
that I must report to you a bug with the latest update to the Zoom software
(for me, in Windows).

 

I often host Zoom meetings, and in so doing, I am sometimes called upon to
play audio presentations. Historically, what I have done is to run the
meeting using a USB headset and microphone and route my JAWS screen reader's
audio to the computer's headphone jack. When I start audio sharing, no one
else except me is able to hear my JAWS program talking.

 

With the latest update, when I activate audio sharing, regardless of what
sound card I route JAWS to, meeting participants can hear my audio
presentation and JAWS, which is highly disruptive to the proceedings.

 

Please fix this as soon as you can.

 

Very truly yours,

 

Curtis Chong