[NFBCS] making an audio call in Microsoft Teams and other Teams tasks

[Louis Maher]

Thank you John, this is great.

I will let you know my team adventures when I get my team running.


Regards
Louis Maher
Phone: 713-444-7838
Email: ljmaher03 at outlook.com

From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of John Miller via NFBCS
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2026 6:30 PM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: John Miller <johnmillerphd at hotmail.com>
Subject: [NFBCS] making an audio call in Microsoft Teams and other Teams tasks

Hello,
I know quite a number of individuals on the NFB lists are quite proficient with Microsoft Teams including Teams chat.
I am more of a so-so individual in terms of my technical proficiency.
I would be interested in your feedback on the steps I provide below.
I would also like to hear about how you do activities in Microsoft Teams.
I have had some limited success using Microsoft Teams Windows desktop application for meetings, audio calls, and chats.
Here is a brief write-up of several activities I do in Teams and the keystrokes to get the job done.
For quite some time I have struggled with how to initiate an audio call in teams with a colleague.
Using JAWS I asked Vispero Companion at fscompanion.ai this question and got a quite useful response.

If a meeting is on my calendar, I have no trouble connecting with the meeting.  This can be done from within the meeting reminder in Outlook or directly in Teams in the calendar view.
Vispero provides training about how to join a Teams meeting from the meeting reminder.
To get to the calendar view in Teams, just press control-3 in Teams.
In 2025 this hotkey changed.  It used to be control-4 and then one day it was control-3.
It may change again so be alert.

Once in the calendar view just up arrow or down arrow through the times.  JAWS announces the time and the presence of a meeting at a particular timeslot.
You can also press tab or shift-tab to move between meetings in this view.
To join a meeting press enter on a meeting, tab quite a bit, press enter on join meeting, tab through audio and video choices while selecting or unselecting the checkboxes for things like microphone, and then press enter on join.
I believe the final join button indicates whether the microphone and camera are on or not.
After joining the meeting, mute and unmute with control-shift-m.
Exit the meeting with control-shift-h.
During the meeting you can tab around and find a list of participants currently on the call.

To make an audio call to someone begin a chat with that individual.
You could for example press control-2 to go to a list of chats.  Arrow through the chats and press enter on the chat of interest.
You could instead begin a new chat with control-n and type in the individual's name.
As you type Microsoft provides a list that shrinks as you type more and more characters of the individual's name.
You can arrow down through the choices provided by Teams and select one with enter.

Microsoft calls the field where you type your message the compose box. Microsoft calls who is in the chat the participants list.
The hotkey control-r returns to the compose box from many fields that are near the chat.

Once you are in the compose box Just press alt-shift-a to bring up an audio call to the individual in the chat.
For me this is the fewest number of steps to start an audio call I have found.

Before I send a message in chat that I am ready to send I like to first verify who it is going to.  To do so I leave the compose box with shift-tab.  After several shift-tabs I land on the participant list.
After I verify the participant list I can return to the compose box with control-r.
When inside the compose box pressing enter sends the chat message.
Very best,
John Miller
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/attachments/20260328/500462bb/attachment.htm>