Zoom Meetings Overview 



Center on Victimization and Safety: Language, Justice, and Access 


Zoom Meeting is a video conferencing platform that allows us to interact 
virtually. Zoom allows us to connect face-to-face, work on documents 
collaboratively, share PowerPoint slides, view websites, watch videos 
together, and more. 

 

In this Zoom Meetings Overview you can find information about: 

• Attendees’ Roles in a Zoom Meeting 
• Host Roles a Zoom Meeting 
• Considerations for American Sign Language (ASL) Interpretation in a 
Zoom Meeting 
• Setting up Captions in Zoom Meeting 


 

Attendees

 

Zoom Meeting gives Attendees the option to join meetings on video 
and/or by phone. Attendees can mute and unmute themselves, and turn 
their videos on and off themselves. Attendees can also: 

• Invite others to join the meeting while the meeting is in session 
• See other participants who are attending the meeting 



• Use the chat box to communicate with Hosts and other Attendees 


 

Depending on how the Host sets up meeting permissions, Attendees may 
be able to: 

• Share their screens in meetings 
• Using icons to communicate, like “raise hand”, “slow down”, and 
“away”, for example. 
• Record the meeting to their computer 


 

In Zoom Meetings, Attendees can choose how they would like to view 
their screen. There are a few ways to view the screen: 

• Active Speaker Mode: This view shows the person who is speaking as 
the main large video. The other videos will show up smaller along the 
top of your screen. 


Active Speaker mode screen shot with two people meetings
• Gallery View: This view shows everyone in the meeting all at once, in 
smaller videos in a Gallery. As of September 2020, hosts can allow 



attendees to customize their own Gallery view screens. When hosts 
allow attendees to customize their own Gallery views, Deaf 
participants can place interpreter screens in their preferred 
locations. Deaf participants can also group other Deaf and signing 
attendees together in their Gallery view, which can help improve 
line of sight and cohesion. 


Gallery View screen shot with 6 people 

Hosts

 

Hosts initiate Zoom meetings. Hosts should have a Zoom account to start 
the Zoom meeting and to invite other attendees. Attendees do not need 
to have Zoom accounts. Hosts can also designate Co-Hosts during 
meetings. Co-Hosts can help manage attendees and can start and stop 
the meeting recording. Hosts can also assign Alternative Hosts before the 
meeting, so that if the Host cannot be present to start the meeting, the 
Alternative Host can start the meeting. Alternative Hosts must also have 
Zoom accounts. 

 

Only Hosts have the following controls: 

• Start closed captioning and assign someone provide closed 
captioning 
• Assign attendees as Co-Hosts 
• Start live streaming 
• Start breakout rooms or move participants from one breakout room 
to another 
• Start waiting room (co-hosts can place participants in waiting room 
or admit/remove participants from the waiting room) 
• End meeting for all participants 


 

As of September 2020, hosts and co-hosts can also customize the order of 
video screens Gallery view for all attendees. Hosts can choose whether to 
have participants follow their Gallery view. Hosts can customize the 
Gallery view by dragging the screens in the order they prefer. This can be 


especially helpful when the event includes captions and sign language 
interpreters. Hosts can move interpreter screens to the top of the Gallery 
while captions appear at the bottom of the Gallery. Alternatively, hosts 
can give attendees permission to customized their own Gallery view. 

 

You can host meetings with or without registration. Meeting registration 
can help improve your meeting’s accessibility, because you will have the 
chance to ask Attendees about their access needs. You can live stream 
your Zoom meetings on Facebook, YouTube, and other sites. 

Considerations American Sign Language (ASL) Interpretation 

 

Zoom is an accessible platform for ASL interpretation because participants 
can see each other face-to-face with high definition videos. 

 

ASL Interpreters should join the meeting as Co-Hosts. Interpreters can also 
join the meeting as Attendees, and the Host can promote them to Co-
Host. 

 

ASL interpreters should check in with participants to be sure they can see 
each other. Participants who want to see the ASL interpreter should “pin” 
the ASL interpreter’s video. 

 


Pinning a Video: 

 

Pinning a video in Zoom allows an attendee to see one video consistently 
throughout the meeting. If you want to see a specific video of someone 
who is not the speaker on your screen during the entire meeting, (like an 
ASL interpreter video), you can pin that person’s video. Pinning a video 
overrides the Active Speaker View and Gallery View. The video you pin 
will appear larger on your screen during the whole meeting. This works well 
for participants who want to view the ASL interpreter throughout the entire 
meeting. 

Pinning a video only changes the Zoom view for the individual 
participants who pin the video. If you want to record the meeting to your 
computer, you can record the pinned video view. When you pin a video, 
it will not change the layout or the recording for other Attendees or Hosts. 

 

As of September 2020, Hosts can allow attendees to pin multiple videos at 
once. Attendees can pin up to 9 videos at one time. 

 

Screen Sharing View: 

When Hosts or Attendees share their screen during a meetings, the screen 
share becomes full screen. Attendees can adjust the view so that the 
video is larger than the screen share by selecting “Swap Screen Share 
with Video” at the top of the screen. 

 

From the View Options at the top of the screen, Attendees can “Exit Full 
Screen” mode, or select “Side by Side” mode to view the video and 


screen share side by side. In this way, attendees who want to view the ASL 
interpreter video can do so during a screen share. 

 

This image shows how the screen appears in Gallery View with the ASL 
interpreter video pinned. 

screen shot of Zoom gallery view with a screen share and an interpreter pinned video.

Setting up Captions in Zoom Meeting 

As the Host, you can set up closed captions in your Zoom Meeting by first 
adjusting your meeting settings in your account. You must have the one of 
these versions of Zoom Desktop Client: 

• Windows: 3.5.37712.0111 or higher 
• macOS: 3.5.37712.0111 or higher 
• Linux: 3.5.37712.0111 or higher 


 

In your Browser, go to Account Settings. In the In Meeting Advanced tab, 
make sure Closed Caption is enabled: 

A screenshot of a Zoom advanced meeting settings. Select closed captioning which is the option after remote support.
Start and test the captions in the meeting 

 

• The captioner must log into the Zoom meeting. 
• The Host or Co-Host must click the “closed caption” icon on the 
Zoom panel. Then, you can either: 



o Select “Use a 3rd Party CC service” by clicking the button 
“Copy the API Token”: 





A screenshot of Zoom caption selection settings. 
o Send the captioner the API Token/Caption URL through the 
Zoom Chat. Then they can begin captioning! 
o Test the captions with the captioner before the meeting to be 
sure they are coming through. 
• Or, you can: 
o Select “Assign a participant to type”. 
o Assign the captioner to type in Zoom. Then they can begin 
captioning! 





How Attendees view captions:

 

Attendees should be able to see the captions by clicking the “closed 
caption” icon and selecting “Show Subtitles”. They will not automatically 
appear.