Chapter 3: Accomplishing basic tasks in Teams
Microsoft Teams with SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader

Teams has many features and often offers many ways to perform the same task. Below you will find instructions on how to do some of the more popular tasks in Teams using a keyboard and, although, other methods may be available, we hope the following instructions provide practical examples that help you get started with Teams.

The instructions below assume you have already downloaded, installed, and signed into Teams.

Change your status

You can change your status in Teams to help others know if you are available, busy, or away from your desk. When you are in a meeting, Teams automatically changes your status to busy.

To change your status:

1. Press CONTROL + E to move focus to the Search box.
2. Type "/" (forward slash) and then press DOWN ARROW to move through the list of commands.
3. Select your status and press ENTER.

Alternatively, press CONTROL + E to move focus to the Search box, and then type forward slash followed by your status. For example:

• To set your status to available, type "/available" and press ENTER.
• To set your status to away, type "/away" and press ENTER.
• To set your status to busy, type "/busy" and press ENTER.

You can check your status by reviewing the Teams icon in the Windows System Tray.

Start first private chat

To start your first chat with a contact, do the following:

1. Press CONTROL + 2 to switch to Chat View.
2. Press CONTROL + E to move focus to the Search box.
3. Type part of your contact’s name and DOWN ARROW to review the search results.
4. Select your contact and press ENTER. Focus moves to the message compose box.
5. Type your message, and press ENTER. The message is sent.

Tip: SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader includes a hotkey that will read the last message sent to the chat during the current session. The hotkey is CAPS LOCK + L. This will read your message or, if a response has arrived, will read the response.

Continue a chat

Teams lists the contacts you have recently messaged in the Chat View. You can continue your chat by following the steps described in "Start first private chat" or by doing the following:

1. Press CONTROL + 2 to switch to Chat View.
2. Press Ctrl+F6 until you hear: "Chat list."
3. Press the Up or Down arrow key until you hear the name of the contact or group you want to chat with, followed by the last message in the chat.
4. Press ENTER to move the focus to the message compose box, type your message, and press ENTER. The message is sent.

Tip: SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader includes a hotkey that will read the last message sent to the chat during the current session. The hotkey is CAPS LOCK + L. This will read your message or, if a response has arrived, will read the response.

You can verify what chat window you are currently in by reading the title of the window, which you do by pressing the "Where Am I? " Speak Key. If you are using the Default NumPad hotkey set, press NUMPAD 7. If you are using the Laptop Universal hotkey set, press CAPS LOCK + PAGE UP.

If you have navigated away from the compose message box, you can press SHIFT + ALT + C to return focus to this edit box.

Read private chat history

If you are seeking to read your chat history with your current contact, from the compose message window, press SHIFT + TAB to move focus back to the message content window and use the UP and DOWN ARROW keys to read through the chat history.

Alternatively, to read the chat history with a contact, do the following:

1. Press CONTROL + 2 to open Chat View.
2. Press CONTROL + F6 until you hear: "Chat list."
3. Press the Up or DOWN ARROW key until you find the chat you want to read.
4. Press ENTER to move the focus to the message compose box.
5. Press SHIFT + TAB to move focus back to the message content window and use the UP and DOWN ARROW keys to read through the chat history.

If you wish to respond to the message, TAB forward to the message compose box, type your message, and press ENTER. The message is sent.

Start a video or audio chat

To start a video or audio chat, do the following:

1. Press CONTROL + 2 to switch to Chat View.
2. Press CONTROL + E to move focus to the Search box.
3. Type part of your contact’s name and DOWN ARROW to review the search results.
4. Select your contact and press ENTER. Focus moves to the message compose box.
5. Press CONTROL + SHIFT + C to start an audio call or, press CONTROL + SHIFT + U to start a video call.
6. When done, press CONTROL + SHIFT + H to hang up.

Alternatively, after searching for and selecting your contact, you can navigate the main interface until you reach the contact’s profile button, then you can press SPACEBAR to expand the available options, where you can choose to either "Make video call" or "Make audio call" from the available items.

While your call is in progress, the following keyboard commands may be of help:

• Turn video camera on or off, CONTROL + SHIFT + O.
• Turn microphone on or off, press CONTROL + SHIFT + M.
• Restate current camera status, press CAPS LOCK + O.
• Restate current microphone status, press CAPS LOCK + M.

Occasionally, you may also find speech from SuperNova or Dolphin ScreenReader lost due to the noise of the conversation, thus the Speak last speech hotkey can be helpful.

Hotkeys

Accept or reject incoming calls

When you receive a call from a contact, Teams pops up a notification window, which enables you to accept or reject the call.

You can:

• Press CONTROL + SHIFT + A to accept the call with both video and audio enabled.
• Press CONTROL + SHIFT + S to accept the call with audio only enabled.
• Press CONTROL + SHIFT + D to decline the call.

IMPORTANT: depending on your system setup, it is possible that CONTROL + SHIFT + S and CONTROL + SHIFT + D may be in use to launch SuperNova or Dolphin ScreenReader. Therefore, you cannot use these keystrokes to accept or reject an incoming call.

Instead, you can do one of the following:

• If you wish to accept with audio only, use CONTROL + SHIFT + A to accept the call with video enabled and use CONTROL + SHIFT + O to turn off the video after the connection is made.
• When the Notification window has focus, turn on the Dolphin Cursor, use the DOWN ARROW key to choose an option and then press SPACEBAR to activate your selection.
• Assign an alternative hotkey to launch SuperNova or Dolphin ScreenReader by modifying the properties of the app’s shortcut in the Start menu.

Join a meeting

Teams enables group members to meet and discuss ongoing projects. Meetings can be scheduled and joined through Outlook and through the Teams Calendar. Typically, you will receive a Notification that a meeting is about to start and from this Notification you can choose to join the meeting.

You can also join a meeting through the Teams Calendar.

To do this:

1. Press Ctrl+4 to go to the Calendar View.
2. TAB repeatedly until you find the meeting you want, and press ENTER. The meeting details view opens.
3. TAB until you hear "Join meeting," and press Enter.
4. To join the meeting with default SETTINGS, press ENTER. Alternatively, to change the video and audio options, TAB until you hear "Enable video" or "Enable microphone," and press SPACEBAR to toggle the option on or off. Then, press SHIFT + TAB until you hear "Join the meeting," and press SPACEBAR.

While in a meeting, you can:

• Press CONTROL + SHIFT + M to mute and unmute your microphone.
• Press CONTROL + SHIFT + O To enable and disable your camera.
• Press CONTROL + SHIFT + K to raise or lower your hand. When your hand is raised, your screen will have a highlighted border to show the speaker that you have raised your hand.
• Press CONTROL + SHIFT + H to leave the meeting.

You can also press the TAB key to explore the additional options available during the meeting. For example, if you wish to view the list of participants:

1. In a Teams Meeting, TAB until you hear "Call controls regions".
2. Press the LEFT or RIGHT ARROW key until you hear "Show participants" and press ENTER.
3. TAB until you hear: "Attendees, in this meeting" and then DOWN ARROW to review the list of participants.

Finally, if you find the SuperNova or Dolphin ScreenReader speech output distracting as you participate in the meeting, remember you can toggle speech output on and off with the following hotkeys.

Hotkeys