[NFB-Science] using Microsoft Teams to upload or download a file to a channel

[John Miller]

Hello,
I am practicing uploading and downloading files to a channel in Microsoft Teams using the screen reader JAWS.
I installed JAWS 2023.2302.15 on my personal computer.
Recently I uploaded one of my newly minted PowerPoint files in a channel inside Teams at my work.
In Teams, uploading and downloading files to a channel seems quite different to me than uploading or downloading a file from a chat.
I contacted Microsoft Disability Access Desk and was directed mostly to just press tab to complete these tasks.
Even though I know a lot about teams, I could not get the task done without sighted assistance and some  trial and error the first time.
I hope there is an easier way to do what I describe below in Teams by using some other approach.
I am socializing this experience with accessibility designers like yourself and the blind community in hopes we can together find a simpler solution.

The first thing I want to do in Teams is go to a channel and see what files are there.
Once I navigate to a file I can download it using the context menu.

Here are the steps to get to a channel from the calendar view in Teams.
These steps would work just as well from the chat view or many of the other views.
From calendar, do a control-3 which selects channel and then a control +e type /goto and start down-arrowing to see a list of available channels.
The refreshable braille display uses a display message to display the name of the channel that is selected. After a few moments the name of the channel disappears from the braille display. Just up-arrow and down-arrow to display again the selected choice.
The screen reader JAWS speaks the name of the channel in focus.
Press enter on the desired choice.

After the control-3 channel command, you can also control + e and then type /goto and the first few letters of the desired channel.
Then down-arrow to the desired channel and enter to select the channel.
This approach creates a short list to choose from, possibly of length one.

The next step for viewing files in the channel is to
tab to POSTS and next
right-arrow to file and press enter.
I interject that I would like some hotkey that got me directly to the POSTS control rather than using tab.
At this point, JAWS says Tab Viewer and gives a warning that if you continue Teams may not work as expected.
Press tab to enter Tab Viewer.
Press tab several times to land on a list of files.
Each file name is spoken and the braille display moves to the end of the information displayed about the file.
In this case the file size. Press the pan left control on the braille display to scroll back to the file name to review its name in braille.

At this point I interject to say that the braille display should maintain focus at the file name when first visiting a file rather than displaying its size only.
From an accessibility viewpoint, I prefer the SharePoint display of file information to the file list with Teams.

To download a file, just down-arrow until the file is in focus.
Select the context menu by pressing the applications key or shift + F10 and down-arrow to download.
To exit Tab Viewer shift-tab to move back out of the list of files.
Once the focus is on "more meet now options" the Tab Viewer is no longer in effect.
At this point you can control-4, for example, to return to the calendar view.
When inside Tab Viewer, I cannot leave the channel in the usual way using control-4, for example.
Without shift-tabbing, the control-4 command that usually goes to calendar takes no action.
This is what the warning is talking about when you enter Tab Viewer.

After I exit Tab Viewer I can press tab to enter Tab Viewer again.
I might want to do some action to the channel now that I am familiar with the files in it.
In this case I will open Tab Viewer and proceed to upload a file.

After I press tab a few times JAWS says menu command bar menu new submenu, create a folder or document in this location.
The braille display shows new.
I right-arrow once to upload and press enter.

This brings up a Windows explorer dialog. When the folder of interest is selected and the file of interest is highlighted press enter.
Go inside a displayed folder by pressing enter when the folder is selected.
Toggle highlighting for the file of interest with control + spacebar.
Once the file is highlighted press enter and the dialog closes.
When the action is done JAWS says "alert uploading".

You are returned to the upload option of the new submenu.

To prove that the file has been uploaded, I navigate to the file and use the context menu by pressing the applications key or shift + F10.
I then down-arrow to download and press enter.
When the action is done JAWS says "alert downloading".
If I really want to know the file is uploaded, I then navigate to my Downloads folder and check the date modified or open the file and verify it has the correct content.

Recall that after performing an upload you are still in Tab Viewer.
I would like to know how to close Tab Viewer with a simple hotkey.
Several shift-tabs are needed to bring you to "more meet now options".
Now Tab Viewer is closed and you can return to another view such as with control-4 for calendar. You could also go to another channel with control +e and type /goto.


Best Regards,
John