Blue Jeans Network is making it easier for people with disabilities to use its cloud-based video conferencing solution.
The company is adding features to its video conferencing services to enable people with a range of disabilities—from blindness and low vision to deafness, hearing loss, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech issues, learning disabilities and photosensitivity—to gain the benefits of the technology that others do.
The new features include the ability for people with hearing loss or deafness to invite an interpreter to the video meeting to help them understand what is being said. In addition, Blue Jeans’ services are compatible with such screen readers as VoiceOver on Apple devices running the iOS and OS X operating systems, TalkBack on devices running Google’s Android, and Non-Visual Desktop Access (NVDA) for Microsoft’s Windows.
In addition, the enhanced services will enable more people to take advantage of distance-learning opportunities, Blue Jeans officials said.
The company based the enhancements on the requirements spelled out by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 from the World Wide Web Consortium and the federal 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act issued by the Federal Communications Commission.
Blue Jeans officials said improving the accessibility of the company’s services will be particularly helpful in the education space by opening up more avenues for people with disabilities to access classroom resources.
“Enhancing accessibility is paramount to our mission to make it possible for anyone to collaborate more effectively anytime, anywhere, and from practically any device,” Stu Aaron, chief commercial officer at Blue Jeans, said in a statement. “As businesses and educational institutions of all sizes and shapes around the world are deploying Blue Jeans, we believe that our enhanced accessibility will ensure that no one is left out.”