Cloud-based conferencing software, Zoom now has auto-generated captions available for all free users.
Zoom has announced, through a blog post, that auto-generated captions are now to be available for all free Zoom users. The feature was previously locked to paid Zoom Meetings accounts, although the features use still seems tied to whether an account owner has enabled the feature for a meeting.
“It’s important to us that everyone can successfully connect, communicate, and participate using Zoom.” said Zoom Meetings product marketing manager, Theresa Larki in the blog post. “Without the proper accessibility tools, people with disabilities face tremendous barriers when using video communication solutions.”
The feature can be enabled through the web portal with other users being able to manually request that the meeting has captions enabled. These captions are currently only available in English but Zoom plans to expand to other languages in the future. As well as the auto-generated captions, Zoom also supports manual captioning and third-party integration for captioning services.
The Verge notes that earlier this year, Zoom had promised to roll free auto-generated captions out, and having the feature locked behind a paywall saw concerns for accessibility being raised. Zoom’s blog post also highlights the other accessibility features that have become a part of the software, such as keyboard accessibility, pinning a speaker, or spotlighting interpreter videos. There’s also screen reader support and voicemail transcription.
Zoom states that it wants to hear from users on how to make its service more accessibility, and offers users to email access@zoom.us to raise any concerns or suggestions.
