Winning Teams Revisited! Using Microsoft Teams with JAWS for Windows.

Introduction.

It has been exactly two years since we produced a training course in the use of Microsoft Teams. Since that time, the Teams application has significantly changed. Two years in this context is a long period of time. There have been some accessibility regressions and changes. Moreover, depending upon which build of Teams your organisation has access to, the level of accessibility you will receive will vary.

Our training course, Winning Teams revisited, teaches someone who has never used the application before how to work with Teams. It will bring you up to speed in terms of changes in the application. It will give you strategies in terms of how to manage situations if accessibility is not all that it could be.
We have learned a great deal about Teams during the past two years.

There is another important component of this training course and that is how to work with Teams efficiently. It is all very well for a person to let you know that you can move to different parts of the interface by pressing Tab and Shift+Tab. But if you are in a high pressure situation, taking calls or hosting meetings, you want to be the best. When taking a call, in your job, you want to transfer a call quickly or perhaps put them on hold with the minimum of keystrokes. When hosting a meeting, you don't want your audience to be sitting there waiting while you Tab around trying to find out whose hands are raised. As a blind person, you should be able to deal with participant queries as if you were hosting a radio talk show. So efficiency is at the very heart of this training course. If you study what is here, you can be better than just adequate.

There is a substantial discount available for people who have previously taken the training course. Please read on to find out more.

We also offer this time a full text transcript of the training which was a service we did not have access to back in 2021.

Accessing Teams.

As stated previously, if you are collaborating with people, either through meetings or text chat, you want to ensure that you can do everything as quickly as possible. To that end, some JAWS scripts will be provided for course participants which can be optionally installed. The functions of these scripts are listed on the appropriate page of our web site.

Training.

In addition to the JAWS scripts, of course you also receive high quality training, delivered using our Zoom conferencing facility. The training does not just demonstrate how to use a specific feature. In many cases, it describes the concepts behind the feature being worked through so you gain a clear understanding of the purpose.

Topics, (some of which are very extensive), are as follows:

• Introduction and terminology.
• Instalation and script activation.
• Learning the keystrokes.
• Basic navigation.
• The purpose of Control+E and changing status.
• Initial Teams customisation.
• Working with notifications and importing our own rules.
• Adjusting the Zoom or View.
• Introduction to the New Chat dialog box.
• Composing a chat to one person.
• Reviewing messages in a chat.
• Chat filtering.
• The chat context menu.
• Opening a chat in a new window.
• Creating group chats with meaningful names.
• Introduction to working as part of a team.
• Structure of teams, channels and threads.
• Creating our first team.
• Creating channels.
• Starting a new conversation and submitting a reply.
• Mentions and hashtags.
• Using the Activity feed.
• Participating in a channel by Email.
• Organising teams.
• Entering commands with Control Forward Slash.
• Moving to a specific channel quickly.
• Changing status including setting appropriate text.
• Navigating the Teams calendar, first slowly, then efficiently.
• Creating a simple Teams meeting in the calendar.
• Creating a Teams meeting using the Scheduling Tab.
• Creating a Teams meeting using Microsoft Outlook.
• Viewing the details of a Teams meeting.
• Customising meeting options.
• Customising devices in readiness for meetings.
• Prior to entering a meeting, what to look out for.
• Introducing the meeting toolbars.
• Common meeting tasks.
• Admitting participants from the lobby.
• Using PowerPoint Live.
• Accessing a recording from the list of chat messages.
• Accessing a recording using the Files Tab in a chat.
• Searching for files, and opening them using the native desktop app.
• The Files app.
• Attaching files to chats and channels.
• Answering calls and the call interface.
• Making calls and Meet Now.
• An introduction to the Calls app.

You will need:

• Access to Microsoft Teams version 1.6. This is usually part of a Microsoft Office subscription. If you are part of an organisation deploying Teams, you are likely to have access to more features than are available to individuals.
• JAWS version 2021 through to 2023.

What You Will Receive.

As a course participant you will receive:

• Over six hours of training provided in a series of MP3 files. This is an archive of the webinar series divided into short audio files for easy reference.
• A text transcript of all of the lessons.
• A DAISY book of all of the lessons.
• The JAWS scripts previously mentioned.
• Access to an Email list for ongoing discussion.

If you did not take part in the original training course, the cost of this package is £150 which is currently $184 US.
If you took part in the training course previously, the cost is £80 which is approximately $97 US.

If you are part of an organisation wishing to make 10 bookings or more, there is a very substantial discount on the cost. Please contact us for details.

How to Purchase.

If you have not taken part in the Winning Teams training previously:

If you have taken part in the Winning Teams training previously:

Alternatively, anyone can purchase the course by sending an Email to jaws@hartgen.org, whereupon a fully accessible electronic invoice will be sent to you which can be paid through PayPal or any major credit or debit card.

Conclusion.

Teams is a powerful and extremely useful collaboration environment that will only get more popular. But undoubtedly it is challenging and it is important to know how to meet those challenges. Become part of a winning team and find out how to use it in an accessible and effective way!