Tips for hosting more accessible Google Meet calls

Before the Meeting

Setting the stage for an accessible meeting starts with thoughtful planning. There are several things to consider when scheduling a meeting to ensure a productive and stress-free experience, including giving participants adequate time to prepare. Without preparation, people can feel nervous or anxious coming into a meeting, which can hinder effective participation.

Here are some of the ways you can help people prepare for a meeting:

• Send Google Calendar invitations well in advance to ensure invitees have enough time to clear their schedule, review the meeting agenda and make any necessary arrangements. These arrangements could include booking a meeting room, making sure their headset is charged and their camera is working properly or finding an available sign-language interpreter.
• Break longer meetings into shorter segments or spread them across multiple days to improve participant focus and reduce fatigue.
• Automatically shorten calls by 5, 10 or more minutes with the speedy meetings feature in Google Calendar so you can give people enough time to prepare for, or physically get to, any other meetings or commitments they have afterwards.
• Choose clear and descriptive calendar event titles to help set expectations and allow invitees to quickly understand the meeting's purpose. Avoid using vague or generic terms like "Chat" as they can cause stress and anxiety.
• Include an agenda in the Google Calendar event description that clearly outlines what you’re going to cover in the meeting so everyone has an equal opportunity to prepare and contribute meaningfully.
• Attach any files that you plan to discuss – such as documents or presentations – to the Google Calendar invitation beforehand to allow participants ample time to process information and develop ideas prior to the meeting. You can also attach a Google Docs meeting notes template that is pre-populated with meeting details, including the date, title and attendees. The meeting notes template also has specific sections for taking notes and assigning action items.

In addition to these tips for helping participants prepare for a meeting, here are some other useful practices and features you can implement when scheduling a meeting:

Pre-configure features such as Google Meet recordings, transcripts and AI summaries* from the Google Calendar invitation. This helps prevent interruptions and ensures essential meeting features aren't overlooked once the meeting begins.

Address any questions before the meeting to ensure that the participants who find it difficult to speak up during a call have a chance to share their input in a way that is comfortable for them.

Understand, respect and accommodate different work styles to create an inclusive and supportive environment. Encourage your team to share their working hours and use tools like Focus Time to block off windows when they are most productive. This will help you schedule meetings more effectively and avoid interrupting colleagues’ peak focus time.

Use Google Calendar appointment schedules to make it easier for external contacts, who cannot see and check your calendar availability like a colleague can, to self-book meetings with you via a booking page. This reduces the need to go back and forth trying to find a suitable time to meet and can be a great way to let people pick a time that works for them.

During the Meeting

Tips for Hosts and Speakers

Make sure your camera is on and participants can clearly see you, your facial expressions and are able to read your lips for effective communication. Whilst this is typically easier when joining on a personal device, devices like Logitech Sight can bring a similar experience to the meeting room. You can also use Google Meet features like automatic light adjustment* and camera framing both on your personal device and on Google Meet Hardware to improve your video quality and ensure you’re prominently displayed in your video tile. Blur your background or use a static background image to reduce distractions from your surroundings and help people focus on you.

Reduce background noises, such as keyboards typing or the shuffling of papers, to avoid distracting others. Consider using a noise cancelling headset, like the Poly Voyager Focus 2, where possible to improve your audio. If you’re joining from a meeting room, all Google Meet Hardware devices have built-in noise cancellation and Series One devices include TrueVoice to make conversations sound their very best. You can also mute everyone when they aren’t speaking to prevent audio feedback. Additionally, the Google Meet automatic volume levelling feature ensures all participants can be heard equally, at the same volume.

Use clear and concise language and communicate in a way that is easy for your audience to understand. Avoid using excessive jargon unless you are certain all participants are familiar with it.

Create a record of the meeting for participants who were unable to attend or want to watch it later at their own pace by recording the meeting. In Google Drive, captions are also automatically added to the recording to make the content available to a wider audience. This includes people who are deaf, hard-of-hearing or want to watch and read the content simultaneously to enhance understanding and engagement. Just remember to obtain consent from all participants and notify them before you start the recording.

Enable Google Meet transcripts at the start of the call (unless you have already pre-configured them) to automatically generate a Google Docs file of the meeting dialogue. This provides a valuable resource for participants who prefer or require a document of the conversation instead of relying on a recording, offering greater flexibility and accessibility. Transcripts are also more searchable in Google Drive compared to meeting recordings, allowing participants to reference the record faster when trying to find something after the meeting.

Offer multiple ways to participate in the conversation and utilise Google Meet features like in-meeting chat, polls, and Q&As. These interactive features enable you to accommodate different communication preferences and give everyone an equal opportunity to be involved in the discussion. Keep in mind that some features, like chat, may be distracting and even excluding for people who use certain assistive technologies, such as screen readers.

Tips for Presenting Content

Provide verbal descriptions of what is being screenshared to make information accessible to more people, including participants who have joined the meeting by phone and are audio-only.

Adjust the view of presented content directly in Google Meet by scrolling and zooming in and out from within the meeting window. This makes sure participants get a clear view of what you’re screensharing whilst allowing you to see and interact with them without the need to switch tabs.

Use Google Meet annotations to highlight important points and draw attention to specific areas of your presented content, making it easier for participants to follow along and understand key information. Annotation tools include emoji stickers, a pen, a laser pointer, text box, sticky notes and drawing lines or shapes.

Features for Meeting Participants

Let participants see what’s being said in a meeting by encouraging the use of live captions. Captions make it easier to understand and follow the conversation, especially in situations where it may be difficult to hear the speaker. Translated captions* can also be useful for minimising language barriers in mixed-language teams.

Google Meet keyboard shortcuts make it easier for people to navigate and control the meeting with a keyboard. Participants can control their camera and microphone, raise or lower their hand, open accessibility features like speaker announcements and more. Find the complete list of Google Meet keyboard shortcuts here.

The push-to-talk shortcut allows participants to push and hold the spacebar to unmute themselves quickly. This is ideal for instances where someone might only want to speak briefly and not run the risk of forgetting to mute themselves afterwards. Participants can also use their headsets, speakermics and other USB peripheral devices to conveniently control their mute status during a Google Meet call.

Tile-pairing gives participants the option to pair their video tile with another user’s video tile. This can be helpful in meetings where a sign-language or other language interpreter is present, as it makes it easier to follow along and see who’s speaking or interpreting. Tile-paring can also be used to display co-presenters side-by-side.

Participants can zoom in and out of presented content directly in Google Meet to customise their own view of screenshared content without impacting what others in the meeting see.

Turning off specific video feeds during a Google Meet call allows participants to concentrate on a particular presenter or hide video tiles they find distracting. Doing this lets them customise their meeting view in a way that works best for them without impacting what other participants in the call can see.

Hand-raising provides a less intimidating way for participants who are hesitant to speak up during a meeting to indicate that they would like to contribute without interrupting the flow of conversation. The digital hand-raise indicator can be triggered either by using the hand-raise button in Google Meet, a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl / ⌘ Cmd + alt + H) or a physical hand gesture.

The Chrome browser offers built-in accessibility features that can be used during Google Meet calls, including a screen reader, full-page zoom and high-contrast colour to support participants who need it.

Participants can use Gemini* in Google Meet to automatically capture meeting notes, catch up on discussions if they join late and get a post-meeting summary. This helps them fully focus on the conversation without having to worry about taking notes at the same time.

After the Meeting

Distribute any meeting recordings, transcripts and notes after the meeting to make sure everyone has access to important information and can refer back to it in their own time.

Gather feedback by sending a Google Form to participants after large events or regularly-scheduled meetings to identify how you can improve your meetings and make them more accessible.

Discover More Google Meet Tips & Tricks

By using a combination of these tips and adapting them to the specific needs of your team, you can create a more welcoming and inclusive environment where everyone can access meeting content and participate in the discussion.

Looking for some tips on hosting hybrid Google Meet calls? Take a look at our comprehensive guide. We cover best practices for before, during and after a meeting to create an equitable experience for both in-room and remote participants.

Further resources on the topic of accessibility in meetings:

• Disability:IN | Six Tips To Keep In Mind When Creating Accessible Virtual Meetings
• InclusionHub | 7 Tips to Make Your Virtual Meetings More Accessible & Inclusive
• UNISON | Guide to ensuring accessible virtual meetings and events
• Section508 | Create Accessible Meetings
• PCMag | 15 Tips to Make Meetings More Accessible for Everyone
• Indeed | How to overcome meeting anxiety: simple tips and strategies
• Onebright | Meeting Anxiety: 5 Tips for Team Leaders
• Clockwise | How to Name Your Next Work Meeting for Maximum Effectiveness
• Google Support | Google Meet accessibility
• Google Support | Turn on accessibility settings
• BBC | The reason Zoom calls drain your energy