Create an inclusive digital classroom
with Microsoft Teams for Education
Included in Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams comes with a range of built-in accessibility features to make
class and homework easier for students—including students who have diverse abilities, need
accommodations for vision and hearing, or are English Language Learners. Learning Tools like Immersive
Reader use proven techniques to aid reading and writing for students regardless of ability.
In this guide, see how to get started with some of the key accessibility features in Teams.
1
Immersive Reader
Immersive Reader helps improve reading and comprehension for students, including those with dyslexia or
other learning disabilities. Immersive Reader is integrated into Teams and other Microsoft apps like Word,
OneNote, PowerPoint, Flipgrid, and Edge.
Launch Immersive
Reader from desktop
by opening the More
options panel.
On mobile, press
down on a message
to open Immersive
Reader.
Launch Immersive Reader from an assignment
on either desktop or mobile by opening the
assignment and selecting the Immersive
Reader icon.
Immersive Reader includes features that enable you to …
Read text aloud
with a variety of
Voice Options
Adjust text size,
spacing, font, and color
with Text Options
Highlight parts of
speech using Grammar
Options
Focus on individual
lines and translate text
to over 110 languages
2
Live captions
For students who are hard of hearing, have dyslexia,
or need support focusing, Teams can detect what’s
said in a class session or meeting and present real-
time captions with speaker attribution.
Teams also integrates with Communication access
real-time translation (CART) services to enable
professional services to provide real-time
transcription of meetings or events. (Coming soon)
In More options ,
select Turn on Live
Captions.
3
Message translation
For students who aren’t learning in their native
language, Teams can be set to translate each
message into their preferred language.
Teams translation currently supports over 35
languages, and can be turned on in both the
desktop and mobile versions of the app.
Click your profile
picture and
navigate to
Settings >
General to view
language
options.
4
Try Spotlight and Together Mode for class time
Spotlight pins a specific participant’s camera feed for everyone in the class to ensure all attendees are
looking at the same screen. To enable full access for Deaf or heard of hearing students, Microsoft Teams
supports spotlights for both the teacher and class interpreter.
Click More options next to your
name and select Spotlight me to
pin your camera feed.
Together Mode places class members or participants together in a virtual space—helping students feel
more connected and reducing cognitive load.
Go to More
options and
select Together
Mode.
5
Use Reading Progress to practice reading at any time
Reading Progress, a new tool built into Microsoft Teams, helps students build literacy skills through
personalized, independent reading experiences. The app also saves teachers through a streamlined
review process that collects and analyzes data though Insights. You can learn more about Reading
Progress here.
Make corrections easily with the built-in Auto-
detect* feature. Auto-detect flags
mispronunciations, insertions, omissions,
repetitions, and self-corrections on submitted
student recordings.
Track and share student progress data and
insights through integrated, interactive
dashboards. These help identify specific fluency
challenges and create a custom learning
experience for each student.
6
Explore other accessibility features in Office 365
You can open Office 365 files right in Teams, including presentations, documents, notebooks, and more.
Office 365 offers a range of accessibility features to make learning more inclusive for all students.
Dictation to transcribe speech.
Available in Word, Outlook,
OneNote, and PowerPoint.
Dictate in Word for
desktop and web
Dictate in Word for mobile
Dark mode helps users reduce eye
fatigue and strain. Available in
Teams, Word, Outlook, OneNote,
PowerPoint, and Excel.
Navigate to File menu and hit
the Account tab to change the
Office theme to Black or
Dark Grey
In Teams, go to Settings and
the General tab to switch
between default, dark, and high
contrast mode
Accessibility Checker
helps ensure content is
accessible for parents and
students who are blind. Available
in Word, Outlook, OneNote,
PowerPoint, and Excel.
In the Review tab, select
Check Accessibility
View the inspection results
with recommended
actions on how to make
your file more accessible.
Learn more about Microsoft accessibility solutions here
