Webex - Accessibility & usability information

Cisco Webex is an enterprise solution for video conferencing, online meetings, screen sharing and webinars. The following document describes the accessibility and usability barriers of the tool as well as ways to get assistance.

Get help

• Contact the DoIT Help Desk for general assistance or to report an accessibility or usability barrier with Webex.

• To view Webex service details see the Webex service page.

• See additional Webex support documentation. 

Student accessibility & usability barriers 

Webex does not provide enough audio feedback for users with visual disabilities to properly navigate the tool. Students, faculty, and staff who are blind or have low vision may not be able to use Webex. Users with motor disabilities that navigate via keyboard, may not be able to navigate the web conferencing session enough to participate fully.

The “Join meeting” button is not keyboard accessible

Users using a screen reader or navigating via keyboard may not be able to keyboard click the join meeting button to enter the meeting. Also, screen reader users may not be able to tell if the button was click as the state change isn’t announced via audio. 

Meeting going live status is not represented with an accessible label

There is a green dot is used to indicate the status of the meeting going live. This dot doesn’t have an accessible label or is keyboard reachable for users with visual disabilities to recognize the meeting is available to join. Users who are colorblind may also experience difficulty identifying the meeting is live and available to join as a result of this function relying on color only to communicate a status change. 

Heading levels are out of order which can confuse screen reader users

The meeting entry page is further difficult to navigate because the heading levels are out of order, providing users who navigate via screen reader no indication of where they are on the page. 

WebEx default audio setting is uncooperative with the screen reader

When a participant enters a session in WebEx, they must resync or reconnect their volume to connect audio. This experience is not keyboard accessible so users who are navigating via keyboard (due to motor disability or visual disability) will be unable to sync their audio or use the action buttons during the meeding 

Screen reader users would have to turn off their screen reader and synchronize volume via trackpad or mouse to connect audio. A person with visual disabilities or a person with a motor disability would need the assistance of another individual to fully participate in Webex meetings.

Actions Tray is not reachable by keyboard

The actions tray stays hidden by default. Users have to move their mouse or trackpad to display the actions tray. Thus, the action tray is not reachable via a keyboard without a mouse or trackpad. A person with visual disabilities or a person with a motor disability would need the assistance of another individual to fully participate in Webex meetings.

Poor contrast of keyboard focus makes navigation hard

The keyboard focus color has low contrast to the background color in the WebEx session. It is hard for a person with visual disables to recognize the location of focus in the screen as a result. Thus, it would impact their ability to participate in the session. Moreover, students who have mobility disabilities rely on the keyboard to navigate on the page would likely be unable to locate focus in order to fully participate.

Keyboard focus gets lost when task menu pops up

When users navigate via keyboard to the task menu popup or sub dialogues window, the focus gets lost and keyboard users must navigate again to this functionality. This experience is extremely cumbersome and may impact the ability for someone navigating via keyboard to participate fully in a web conferencing session. 

Visual focus direction conflict with navigation direction may cause confusion

When navigating in the web conferencing session via keyboard, the arrow navigation direction is opposite the visual focus direction expected on the screen. When the user clicks the left arrow, the focus actually tracks right which may cause confusion for a user attempting to keyboard navigate this web conferencing app.