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Accessibility issue for ASD, PTSD: Microsoft Teams overrides user settings to silence/mute notifications for messages sent with Urgent priority.

Anonymous
2024-04-30T02:58:24+00:00

I am using Microsoft Teams Classic program on Windows 11 in a business setting. I have the capability to switch to new Microsoft Teams if required to resolve this, but I have no done so because the High Contrast mode in New is inferior to High Contrast mode in Classic, among other impacts that make the experience unenjoyable.

I have disabilities which require any and all sudden and unexpected noises to not be heard. I am disabled by loud sounds. I am disabled by extremely sudden sounds. In my particular case, I lose my ability to speak for several minutes, I feel intense pain in my teeth for minutes, and other highly unacceptable sensory overwhelm / sensory overload. To put it simply, autistic people have more brain connections and perceive more data than others do. Being disabled by Microsoft products and services cannot continue in my (or anyone else's) workplace environment. Microsoft is typically very observant which such things so I'm at a loss. (In addition to being able to cause attacks and PTSD responses in other disabilities.)

To both my and my IT admin's understanding, using the feature "Send urgent messages using priority notifications ⓘ" causes the entirety of our work domain to not be able to use Urgent, leaving behind only Standard and Important.

What I require is everything else to be allowed about urgent notifications, except the sound. Pop-ups, requirement to acknowledge the message, etc. should (must?) operate as expected.

I have already set every setting possible in Settings > Notifications in Teams to be as minimally impactful as possible.
https://answers-afd.microsoft.com/static/images/image-not-found.jpgEmail Missed activity emails is Offhttps://answers-afd.microsoft.com/static/images/image-not-found.jpgNotification style is Teams built-in
Play sound for incoming calls and notifications a toggle, the toggle is left (off)
Chat: @mentions, @Everyone, and Likes and mentions are all set of Only show in feed
Messages is set of Off

Meetings and calls: Mute notifications during meetings and calls is right (on)
Meeting starting notification is Off
Meeting chat notifications is Mute

People: [blank / not following any people]

Other: Someone you know joined Teams is Off

PC sound settings
The PC is set to System sounds as a volume of 1 and/or mute

The PC's Sound Scheme is No Soundshttps://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/e81ea6c8-6fbb-4345-947c-ffdf897d0cde?platform=QnA"https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/bede83a6-9af5-4934-9576-0cd87368c63c?platform=QnA" title="filestore.community.support.microsoft.com" rel="ugc nofollow">![](https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/bede83a6-9af5-4934-9576-0cd87368c63c?platform=QnA"https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/7e04f036-0025-461b-a82a-480e2f3b36b4?platform=QnA" title="filestore.community.support.microsoft.com" rel="ugc nofollow">

Solutions? Workarounds?
Here are the ideas I have come up with on my own as possible solutions:

  • stop using Teams entirely (impossible; I require Teams to communicate with my team)
  • use Teams exclusively on a mobile device (extremely problematic; I will be significantly delayed in responses and distracted by having to monitor multiple devices)
  • keep teams muted in Volume mixer (mildly problematic; it requires me muting [via Volume mixer] the tail ends of Teams meetings to ensure I cannot get one right as a meeting ends
  • have a 'dummy account' that I am always in a call/meeting with (problematic; my Status will always be In a meeting)
  • deleting or replacing the sound file to make it impossible for Teams to use it; I would need told exact filepath (problematic; it likely will restore itself after Windows update, correct?)
  • some sort of registry edit that I would need told exact instructions to implement (highly problematic; this is a work PC. IT might be willing to implement this as a last resort)
Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Teams for business | Settings | Configure notifications

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-04-30T16:26:40+00:00

    What is the typical filepath for the sound that plays when an Urgent notification is sent? And/or the exact file name?

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-04-30T10:37:23+00:00

    Dear Montros,

    Good day! Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft community.

    Thank you for bringing this to our attention and I'm sorry to hear about the difficulties you are experiencing with Microsoft Teams notifications. I understand that you require urgent notifications without sound.

    We understand your concern about this feature and how it can improve your experience. However, as it is related to Teams product design, we suggest submitting your valuable feedback directly to the Microsoft product development team. You can do this by going to Help from your dedicated App > submit Feedback or by posting on Ideas · Community (microsoft.com). This is necessary because we, as the community team, can only assist you in troubleshooting the query and providing you with information on the feature’s availability status.

    This community team and Microsoft product development team are separate. So for feature’s suggestion or by design query, user need to submit feedback from their side to Microsoft product team. Once user send feedback via above mentioned way, it’s sent to Microsoft directly and it's routed to the relevant product teams who can review it.

    To check more details about how to submit feedback, kindly refer this article Learn about how to provide feedback to Microsoft - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn

    Sincerely

    Feroz Mahmud | Microsoft Community Moderator

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