Office Accessibility Center > Accessibility support for Skype for Business
This topic tells you how you can make your Skype for Business meetings more accessible for people with disabilities using Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), or real-time captioning.
In this topic
Get to know CART
CART makes it possible for people who are deaf or hard of hearing to participate fully in a Skype for Business meeting or phone call. It provides real-time text transcription of everything that is said. CART is also helpful for people who are not fluent in the speaker's language, as captioning is easier to follow than speech which may be accented or suffer from background noise.
CART services are available worldwide and in many languages. However, you must acquire them separately; they are not automatically available when using Skype for Business. Both paid and free CART providers exist. Many providers are happy to offer a demonstration.
Use CART in a meeting
You need to invite a CART transcriber to a meeting or phone call in Skype for Business to get real-time captions. This might be a specific person from the CART provider, or an alias used by all transcribers of that company. If you haven't arranged for the CART service yourself, you can confirm the contact details with the person using the service. At the end of the meeting, you can get a transcript to share with the participants, so that people who were unable to attend can still benefit from the meeting. Even people who did attend may want to go over the material again at their own convenience and pace.
Tips:
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Add a conference phone as a participant by using the Invite More People icon. Just type in the telephone number. The phone can be a media-enabled conference phone in the room or a smart phone.
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Ask participants to say their names when they speak. This helps people who are deaf or hard of hearing follow the meeting.
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Including video can be helpful because it lets people see who is talking and follow their body language.
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Make sure only one person speaks at a time.
See also
Technical support for customers with disabilities
Microsoft wants to provide the best possible experience for all our customers. If you have a disability or questions related to accessibility, please contact the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk for technical assistance. The Disability Answer Desk support team is trained in using many popular assistive technologies and can offer assistance in English, Spanish, French, and American Sign Language. Please go to the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk site to find out the contact details for your region.
If you are a government, commercial, or enterprise user, please contact the enterprise Disability Answer Desk.
