*Inclusive practices that are listed on this page with an asterisk are not legally required.

Live Captioning

All virtual events that are open to the public (beyond Purchase College employees and students) must be artificial-intelligence (AI) captioned  at the least during the event. You may also assign a person to type live captions in lieu of AI captioning. For information about how manual captions work in Zoom, please refer to Zoom’s Managing Manual Captions guide.

For any other virtual college event, public or not, captioning must be provided if an accommodation request is received.

It is strongly recommended that you turn on AI captioning in Zoom or Teams at the start of all virtual events.

Please be advised that your department is responsible for all costs related to captioning.

For assistance with AI captioning in Zoom or Teams, please contact CTS with ample lead time.

Please contact the Accessibility Committee for additional assistance.

Spotlight or Pin Important Video Feeds

If your Zoom event will be using an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter, please make sure the meeting host “Spotlights” the ASL interpreter’s video. Spotlighting the video feed will pin a particular video feed for all participants.

Individual users can also pin the video feed of the ASL interpreter by right-clicking on the ASL interpreter’s video feed (or clicking the “…” option) and selecting the “Pin Video” option. Please note that this will only pin a specific video feed for individual participants who have selected the pin video option. For information about using ASL interpreters in Zoom meetings, please refer to Zoom’s Using Sign Language Interpretation guide.

Manually Create Breakout Rooms When Using Interpreters

If an ASL interpreter is being used, the host(s) of the session should manually create the breakout rooms or ensure the interpreter is added to the same breakout room as the person using the interpreter.

*Enable “Always Show Meeting Controls.”

Individual meeting participants may enable this feature on their individual Zoom applications (i.e., not the web browser version of Zoom). However, the meeting host can enable this for all participants by selecting the “Always Show Meeting Controls” checkbox, and then the controls at the bottom of the zoom screen will remain visible. This will improve the user experience from an accessibility perspective since the controls will no longer appear or disappear upon hover.

From within the Zoom Client:

  1. Select the “Home” tab.
  2. Select the Settings “Gear” icon. A settings pop-up window will open.
  3. Select the “View Advanced Features” (Windows) or “View More Settings” link (Mac) under General settings. The Zoom website will open. Login if you are prompted with the login screen. The Meeting Settings page will open.
  4. Navigate to the In Meeting (Basics) section of the Meeting Settings page.
  5. Enable the “Always show meeting control toolbar” setting.

*Mute Participants Upon Entry

In your meeting settings, select the “Mute participants upon entry” checkbox (located under Meeting Options when scheduling a session). Participants will have to unmute their mics to participate. This helps to ensure less disruption / noise at the start of an event.

*Keyboard Shortcuts

Consider sending a link to Zoom Keyboard Shortcuts  prior to the event. This will  assist those who are unable to use a mouse.

The Zoom Polling Feature

As of 2023, the Zoom polling tool is now accessible to both presenters and participants who use assistive technologies. It is not usable, however, to people who are joining a meeting by phone. If you have participants who join your meeting by phone, make sure to offer them an alternative way for them to send their polling feedback in real-time. Additionally, please ensure that you verbally alert participants whenever you launch a new poll and make sure to provide all participants with plenty of time to locate and participate in the poll.

*Send Resource Links that You Post in the Chat via Email As Well

Participants who use certain types of assistive technology, such as screen reader software, may not be able to copy or activate links. It is recommended that you send resource links that you’ll be sharing either prior to or after the event. You can also mention the website when posting it in Chat.

You can set up your Zoom account to auto-save the chat contents from within your account settings.

Describe Images and Other Visual Content Displayed

Verbally describing visual content that is displayed will help those with a visual or cognitive disabilities, as well as those with technical issues.

Make Sure All Electronic Materials Are Fully Accessible

For information on how to create accessible digital materials, please visit the Electronic Accessibility page.