Microsoft is working on a new accessibility feature that builds upon an existing raise hand feature in its Teams collaboration platform. The company has confirmed on the Teams UserVoice forum that the feature will soon support a keyboard shortcut on the Mac, Windows, and Web clients.
Microsoft Teams desktop users gained the ability to virtually raise their hands during meetings back in May last year. It allows users to click a button to ask a question during large or busy meetings. Currently, the raise hand option is hidden behind the “reactions and raise hand” flyout at the top of the meeting window. This makes it a bit harder for people with accessibility issues and students to click it easily.
Fortunately, the company is aware of this problem, and it will soon introduce a keyboard shortcut for using the raise hand option. “Thank you for your feedback. The team has started working on this feature for desktop Windows and Mac. Web clients will be worked on in the future. We will share an update as soon as one is available,” a member of the Microsoft Teams engineering team wrote on the Teams UserVoice forum.
However, there’s no ETA available as to when this capability will be available for users, but we will keep an eye on the official roadmap for development updates. The idea has received more than 500 votes, and it was originally shared in May 2020. If this is important for you, we invite you to provide your feedback on the UserVoice website.
