M365/test4

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Purpose

To provide detailed updates on Microsoft 365 (M365) Official Languages Issues, and on how they are addressed to meet the Official Language requirements by the Government of Canada.

Context

The Government of Canada is committed to providing a workplace that respects both official languages at all times, and to maintaining a qualified and competent workforce that is capable of delivering services of the highest quality to its internal and external clients in the language of their choice. The Official Languages Act dictates that English and French are the languages of work in federal institutions. By ensuring that M365 Products respect the Official Languages Act, the SSC Strategic Business Planning & Oversight (SBPO)-User Experience (UX) team is assisting the federal institutions: • to respect the language-of-work rights of employees, and • to create and maintain a workplace that is conducive to the use of English and French in bilingual regions, for example by holding bilingual meetings. By ensuring that M365 Products align with the Official Languages Act, SBPO the UX team is contributing to the Government of Canada’s duty to accommodate and maintain an inclusive and linguistically barrier-free environment in the workplace. Therefore, tracking the M365 Official Languages Issues and resolving them is important as those issues can easily turn into high visibility cases.

Official Languages Issues Reports

Teams Meeting Invitations - Outlook Add-In

Description

• Invitations sent to participants in Outlook by a meeting organizer are written in only one language, the organizer’s preferred language.
• Adding a bilingual message was tested using existing Teams features as a potential stop gap; long term solution is to deploy a new Teams plug-in for Outlook that supports bilingual meeting invitations. Using a bilingual logo was tested; however, the solution is not viable as it would break current security controls (i.e., allowing automatic download of images from a URL). Microsoft created a formal Design Change Request (DCR); SSC awaits the new functionality.

Status and Updates

• Microsoft requested a Business Impact Statement from SSC for the requested corrections. Microsoft will decide which requests of the French portion of the Teams Meeting Invitations they will work on.
• Microsoft will do additional corrections to the French  portion of the bilingual invitation.
• SSC Official Languages team has reviewed and approved the requested French corrections to ensure that  they align with the Official Languages Act.
• DCC UX instructed SSC CIO Communication to remove Teams Meeting Invitation-Outlook Add-in from the CIO Communique. A separate communique will be done for this issue.
• The language setting chosen in MS teams will dictate what language the user will see.
• Teams admins will be responsible for configuring some of the hyperlinks contained in the Teams invitations. Related instructions have been added to the Play.
• Link to Play: Official Languages Outlook meeting invitations.

Risk

• Users can manually revise invitation messages as a stop-gap measure, but SSC is looking for a long-term solution from Microsoft that provides a full bilingual service.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Notifications

Description

• Partners can define M365 policies that prevent people from sharing sensitive information when using M365 products such as Teams, Email, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, OneDrive, and SharePoint.
• Currently, notifications to users about data loss prevention are unilingual.

Status and Updates

• DCC-UX followed up with Microsoft for an update and is still waiting.
• Microsoft confirmed that the issue is classified as a Design Change Request. The task was assigned to a Technical Lead (Case# 31444691). The estimated completion target date is Q1 or Q2 2023 (2023-09-30). The work will start in Q1 (April 2023).

Risk

• Users may not be able to address data loss prevention (DLP) issues or understand why an action has been blocked. This will lead to Official Languages complaints and reduced ability of the GC to use DLP policies.

Group Access Review Notification

Description

• When renewing guest users, it is not possible to change the notification text to French, nor change the content to be bilingual. The Access Review Notification email is sent to the main tenant’s language choice only, and not to the user’s choice of language.
• The Access Review Notification email contains two links: Perform an Access Review and Azure Active Directory Access Review. When clicking on either link, it will open in the Edge browser in the language choice that was set by the user. The message is not bilingual.

Status and Updates

• Microsoft has archived the service request awaiting the testing in private preview to be complete.
• SSC contacted GC partners to provide volunteers with admin access at the M365 Tenant level to help perform the testing with the Group Access Review Notification feature with Microsoft.
• Microsoft reported the feature is currently in development, but no estimated release date given yet.
• Microsoft asked if DCC-UX is willing to be added into the private preview to test the feature once available (Case Number 2304120030002838)
• Microsoft has assigned a support engineer to follow up on the issue.
• DCC-UX is drafting a list of users who could be interested in accessing the private preview.
• Microsoft has opened the ticket.
• The issue was reported to Microsoft on 2022-04-11.

Risk

• The Group Access Review Notification is available only in English regardless of the fact the user has the settings in French​.

Canadian French Dictate

Description

• Canadian French Dictate is a voice-to-text author that is used to create documents.
• In this case, it is used to create a Word document via the web-version of Word.
• The French (Canada) Dictate feature does not work on the Web version of MS Word. Despite having all settings activated, the feature still does not work. It appears that this is a wide-scale SSC issue. This issue is concerning as it affects both Accessibility and Official Languages obligations.

Status and Updates

• French Dictate solution is in private preview.
• DCC-UX is waiting for the release date of the update by Microsoft.
• DCC-UX requested DCC Playbook to create the Play for this feature.
• SSC-AAACT confirmed the issue is resolved.
• Microsoft updated DCC-UX with steps to verify the potential resolution for this issue. These instructions were shared with the GC partner who reported the issue. DCC-UX is awaiting their testing results to confirm the resolution and closing of this issue.
• SSC-UX is still awaiting a similar confirmation from a GC Partner.
• Microsoft Product Group’s analysis is underway.
• Since this issue affects both official languages and accessibility, the two Microsoft teams of Official Languages and eDAD are working in coordination on the issue. 

Risk

• French users are unable to use Dictate, unlike the English users.

Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR)

Description

• Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) interface does not allow users to choose the language of their choice. Users must log out for them to be able choose their language of choice.​

Status and Updates

• SSC Conferencing Services Team is currently working with the DCC Playbook Team to create the MTR Play and any additional Plays that may be required for the launch of the MTR service.
• Microsoft has resolved the issue and there is a bilingual interface available in public preview. The Update will be released by the end of July 2023.
• AAACT is to advise SSC Conference Services when they will begin testing on site.
• Microsoft assigned the issue to an engineering team to work on the ability to change the languages on Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR)/Surface Hub. The task is scheduled for the first half of 2023. Dates are subject to change.
• SSC Conference Services Team will create a testing environment at 99 Metcalfe.
• Conference Services, DCC UX, and Microsoft Official Languages, Microsoft’s Enterprise Disability Answer Desk, SSC CIO Collaborations Solutions, and AAACT are collaborating on a potential fix.

Microsoft Teams Bookings

Description

• In the Teams Bookings App, a calendar page can only be made available in either English or French, not giving the user the option to choose both. 
• A minimum of two languages should be set on the Bookings page, allowing the recipient to toggle to the Official language of their choice.
• The current workaround is to create separate calendars (one in French, one in English) and to send two separate links to the recipient.
• The names of the Bookings titles, descriptions, and service titles can be changed to reflect both the English and the French languages. However, toggling between English and French is not possible for the hard-coded titles, such as SELECT A SERVICE, SELECT STAFF, TIME, ADD YOUR DETAILS.

Status and Updates

• Microsoft requested that DCC-UX Team meet with them to demonstrate the issue live. A meeting is pending.
• DCC-UX opened a ticket with Microsoft, and the issue was assigned to a Microsoft engineering team.

Microsoft Yammer Missing the Bilingual E-mail Notification

Description

• Yammer is fully bilingual, except for the notification sent via email or Teams.

Status and Updates

• DCC-UX Team provided Microsoft with further details as per their request.
• DCC-UX Team provided more details on the issue as requested by Microsoft.
• DCC-UX Team opened a ticket with Microsoft, and the issue was assigned to a Microsoft engineering team.
• Microsoft requires more information from the reporting GC partner.

Archived Official Languages Issues

MS Project not Available in Canadian French (FR-CA) - Closed

Description

•  MS Project is not available in Canadian French (FR-CA).

Status and Updates

• Ticket is closed.
• Microsoft confirmed that MS Project is only available in France French (FR-FR).
• DCC-UX opened a ticket with Microsoft requesting that a Canadian French version be created.
• The MS Product team confirmed that the request cannot be accepted. Microsoft is putting their effort into project.microsoft.com.
• Microsoft closed the ticket.

Microsoft Visio not Available in Canadian French (FR-CA) - Closed

Description

•   MS Visio is not available in Canadian French (FR-CA).

Status and Updates

• Ticket is closed.
• Microsoft confirmed that no further investment will be done on Visio. They are fully focused on project on the Web (project.Microsoft.com)
• Microsoft confirmed that MS Visio is only available in France French (FR-FR).
• DCC-UX opened a ticket with Microsoft requesting that a Canadian French version be created.
• Microsoft Product Groups team has rejected the request to create the Canadian French version on their product.
• Microsoft offered a workaround of an FR-FR option that is set when selecting French (Canada).

System-generated E-mails - Closed

Description

• Portal language and system generated emails are based on the users’ preferred language as set in Active Directory (AD).
• Departments must populate this field for all their users in order to see this change take effect.
• SSC is offering guidance and assistance to any department requiring it; some partners, such as ESDC, who use the preferred language field for other purposes, will need additional support from Directory Services.
• Resolved by setting and synchronizing the preferred Language AD attribute. Working with TBS to add to guardrails.  CIO Communications are being developed.

Status and Updates

• DCC UX instructed SSC CIO Communication to remove Teams Meeting Invitation-Outlook Add-in from the CIO Communique.
• The CIO Communique will include the System Generated Emails and the Audio-Conferencing Dial-in.
• The Play has been completed and added to Playbook: System Generated Email.

Teams Meeting French Canadian Captioning and Subtitles - Closed

Description

• Coming soon

Status and Updates

• Live Captioning in Teams meetings is available in preview mode, English-only. This feature can be disabled or used in limited state by departments until it is production-ready.
• Captioning does not support switching between spoken languages; DCC is sharing requirements with Microsoft product engineers.
• SSC has rolled out this feature launched by MS in August 2021.

Multiple Audio Streams for Translation - Closed

Description

• Multiple Audio Streams is a built-in feature in Teams meetings that would allow human interpreters join a meeting to translate into a specific language and use an audio channel, and allow attendees to subscribe to a specific audio channel for listening and speaking in their language of choice.

Status and Updates

• The feature is now available to the general public and a CIO Communique will be sent
• Link: Language Interpretation in a Teams Meeting
• No configuration required to be done by M365 General Admins
• No Play is required in Playbook

Audio-Conferencing Dial-in Message - Closed

Description

• Users connecting to Teams meetings hear an English message, and after a long pause, have the option to choose their preferred language, and then can receive all prompts in French.
• Dial-in service is being changed to give a language selection prompt first, but departments will need to ensure they are using a dedicated phone bridge, not a shared phone number. Two numbers are required, one for English and another for French.

Status and Updates

• DCC-UX instructed SSC CIO Communication to remove Teams Meeting Invitation-Outlook Add-in from the CIO Communique.
• The CIO Communique will include the System Generated Emails and the Audio-Conferencing Dial-in.
• Release update is complete and CIO communication now ready to be sent.
• Link to Play: Audio-Conferencing Dial-in Message  

MS Teams Auto-correct and Auto-detect - Closed

Description

• Coming soon

Status and Updates

• Spellchecking across multiple languages was originally rolled out to Teams Desktop App on Windows, this was later rolled back so the feature can be improved upon. The feature is still available on some tenants but not always consistently functioning.
• Fix is saturating successfully throughout the impacted environments, MS is continuing to monitor progression. Deployment remains on track.
• MS continues to verify new functionality.
• New MS ticket opened to verify fix works as designed. MS continues to verify new functionality.

Contact Us

DCC.Accessibility (SSC),dcc.accessibility-accessibilite.cnn@ssc-spc.gc.ca

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