Use a screen reader to manage Microsoft Teams meetings

Use your keyboard and a screen reader to manage meetings in Microsoft Teams for Windows. We have tested it with JAWS and NVDA, but it might work with other screen readers as long as they follow common accessibility standards and techniques. You'll learn how to mute all participants, prevent participants from unmuting their microphones, and spotlight a video during a meeting. 

In this topic

• Mute all participants in a meeting
• Prevent participants from unmuting their microphones
• Spotlight a video

Mute all participants in a meeting

To avoid any confusion as to who’s speaking and reduce noise, you can mute all participants simultaneously.

Microsoft Teams will show the Mute all option in a meeting with three or more participants. Additionally, in meetings with more than five members, anyone joining the meeting will join as muted.

Screen reader navigation

Focus navigation

1. While in a Microsoft Teams meeting, press the Tab key until you hear "Call controls regions," press the Left or Right arrow key until you hear "Show participants, button," and press Enter.
2. The list of participants opens. Press the Tab key until you hear: "Attendees, Tree view, In this meeting."
3. Press Shift+F10 to open the context menu. You hear: "Mute all." Press Enter. You hear: "Mute everyone?" Press the Tab key until you hear "Mute, button," and press Enter.

Virtual navigation

1. While in a Microsoft Teams meeting, press B until you hear "Show participants, button," and press Enter.
2. The list of participants opens. Press the Tab key until you hear: "Attendees, Tree view, In this meeting."
3. Press Shift+F10 to open the context menu. You hear: "Mute all." Press Enter. You hear: "Mute everyone?" Press the Tab key until you hear "Mute, button," and press Enter.

Prevent participants from unmuting their microphones

If you're organizing a large meeting where you can't take questions from the participants or want to avoid random noises and distractions, you can keep the participants from unmuting their microphones. You can stop attendees from unmuting during a meeting or before the meeting.

Prevent unmuting during a meeting

Screen reader navigation

Focus navigation

1. While in a Microsoft Teams meeting, press the Tab key until you hear "Call controls regions," press the Left or Right arrow key until you hear "More actions, menu button," and press Enter.
2. Press the Down arrow key until you hear "Meeting options," and press Enter.
3. Press the Tab key until you hear "Allow attendees to unmute, check box, checked," and press Spacebar. You hear: "Not checked."
4. Press the Tab key until you hear "Save button," and press Enter.

Virtual navigation

1. While in a Microsoft Teams meeting, press B until you hear "More actions, menu button," and press Enter.
2. Press the Up or Down arrow key until you hear "Meeting options," and press Enter.
3. Press the Tab key until you hear "Allow attendees to unmute, check box, checked," and press Spacebar. You hear: "Not checked."
4. Press the Tab key until you hear "Save button," and press Enter.

Prevent unmuting before the meeting

Screen reader navigation

Focus navigation

1. In the Microsoft Teams Calendar view, navigate to the invitation of the meeting where you want to prevent the participants from unmuting, and press Enter.
2. The meeting details page opens. Press Shift+Tab until you hear: "Cancel meeting."
3. Press the Right arrow key until you hear "Meeting options," and press Enter. Press the Down arrow key until you hear "More options," and press Enter.
4. The Meeting options page opens in your browser. Press the Tab key until you hear "Yes, Allow attendees to unmute," and press Spacebar.
5. Press the Tab key until you hear "Save," and press Enter. You can now return to the meeting details. To close the details page, press Shift+Tab until you hear "Close," and press Enter.

Virtual navigation

1. In the Microsoft Teams Calendar view, navigate to the invitation of the meeting where you want to prevent the participants from unmuting, and press Enter.
2. The meeting details page opens. Press Shift+Tab until you hear: "Cancel meeting."
3. Switch to virtual mode, then press B until you hear "Meeting options," and press Enter. Press the Down arrow key until you hear "More options," and press Enter.
4. The Meeting options page opens in your browser. Press B until you hear "Yes, Allow attendees to unmute," and press Spacebar.
5. Press B until you hear "Save," and press Enter. You can now return to the meeting details. To close the details page, press Shift+B until you hear "Close," and press Enter.

Spotlight a video

Spotlighting a video is like pinning or highlighting it for everyone in the meeting. As an organizer or presenter, you can choose anyone's video, including your own, to be the main video in the meeting.

Screen reader navigation

Focus navigation

1. While in a Microsoft Teams meeting, press the Tab key until you hear "Call controls region," press the Left or Right arrow key until you hear "More actions, menu button," and press Enter. Press the Down arrow key until you hear "Gallery," and press Enter.

2. Press the Left arrow key until you hear "Show participants, menu button," and press Enter.

3. The list of participants opens. Press the Tab key until you hear: "Attendees tree view, In this meeting."

4. Press the Down arrow key until you hear the name of the participant whose video you want to spotlight or your own name if you want to highlight your video.

5. Press Shift+F10, and then do one of the following:

   1. To spotlight a participant's video, press the Down arrow key until you hear "Spotlight, Highlight this video for everyone in the meeting," followed by the participant's name, and press Enter.
   2. To spotlight your own video, press Enter.

Virtual navigation

1. While in a Microsoft Teams meeting, press B until you hear "More actions, menu button," and press Enter. Press the Down arrow key until you hear "Gallery," and press Enter.

2. Press B until you hear "Show participants, menu button," and press Enter.

3. The list of participants opens. Press the Tab key until you hear: "Attendees tree view, In this meeting."

4. Press the Down arrow key until you hear the name of the participant whose video you want to spotlight or your own name if you want to highlight your video.

5. Press Shift+F10, and then do one of the following:

   1. To spotlight a participant's video, press the Down arrow key until you hear "Spotlight, Highlight this video for everyone in the meeting," followed by the participant's name, and press Enter.
   2. To spotlight your own video, press Enter.

See also

Use a screen reader to schedule a meeting in Microsoft Teams

Use a screen reader to join a meeting in Microsoft Teams

Keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Teams

Basic tasks using a screen reader with Microsoft Teams

Set up your device to work with accessibility in Office 365

Use a screen reader to explore and navigate Microsoft Teams

Learning the layout of Microsoft Teams with a screen reader