Zoom - How to add Interpreters to Meeting and Webinars

Zoom – How to add Interpreters to Meetings and Webinars 

Overview: 

Users that would like to include interpreters in their meetings or webinars now can enable Language Interpretation. This allows the host to designate up to 20 participants as interpreters on the web portal or during a Zoom session. 

Note: A guest can be an interpreter but must be assigned as an interpreter after the meeting starts. Zoom will not know who they are without an account.   

Things to know before assigning an interpreter: 

• Language interpretation cannot be used with Personal Meeting ID (PMI). To enable language interpretation, choose the option Generate Automatically for the Meeting ID.  
• This feature must be enabled when scheduling a meeting or webinar, and thus cannot be used for an instant meeting. 
• For webinars, whomever you assign to be a language interpreter must also be a panelist. 
• When using language interpretation and sharing your screen with computer audio, we recommend that you don’t use the Share Audio function. The function is usually optional and may cause sound issues during webinars or meetings if selected when using an interpreter. 
• To add language interpretation to a recurring meeting or webinar, after clicking Edit, click All to add language interpretation to all occurrences. 

Assigning an interpreter: 

1. Sign into the Zoom web portal (heifer.zoom.us) 

1. In the navigation menu, click Meetings. 

1. Click Schedule a Meeting. 

1. Next to Meeting ID, select Generate Automatically. This setting is required for language interpretation.  

1. Next to Interpretation, select the Enable language interpretation check box. 

Note: If you previously selected the Enable language interpretation by default, check the box at the account, group, or user level, this check box will already be selected and enabled as a default setting for all scheduled meetings. 

1. Enter the information for your interpreters. 
   The languages you select for interpreters will create audio channels for those languages in your meeting, but not all these channels have to be used in the meeting. 

1. Click Save. 

Note: The pre-assigned interpreters must be signed into the account associated with the chosen email address. If they are not signed in with that email address when joining the meeting or webinar, they will not be recognized as an interpreter; however, the host can manually assign them to be the interpreter after the meeting has started. 

1. To modify the list of interpreters, click Edit. 

• To add additional interpreters, click + Add Interpreter. Then, enter the information for your interpreters.  
• To resend email invitations, click the email icon  next to the interpreter's name. 
• To copy email invitations, click the ellipses next to the interpreter's name . Then, click Copy Invitation. 
• To remove interpreters. click the ellipses next to the interpreter's name . Then, click Remove This Interpreter. 

1. Click Save when you are finished. 

How to start Language Interpretation in meetings or webinars 

Note: Language interpretation cannot be initiated or managed when using the Zoom mobile app. Participants joining from the Zoom mobile app can only listen to interpretation audio channels and view interpreted text. 

1. Sign into the Zoom desktop client 

1. Start or join a meeting. 

1. Once your meeting has started, click Interpretation in the meeting controls. 

1. You can add or remove interpreters from this menu if necessary.  

1. Click Start to begin the interpretation sessions. 

After clicking Start, the interpreters will receive a message that they have been assigned a language. 

Note: The pre-assigned interpreters must be signed into the account associated with the chosen email address. If they are not signed in with that email address when joining the meeting or webinar, they will not be recognized as an interpreter; however, the host can manually assign them to be the interpreter after the meeting has started. 

1. Interpreters and attendees can now click Interpretation in the meeting controls and select a language channel. 

1. An interpreter on the channel will hear the original meeting audio which they can translate. Interpreters only have access to the language channel they have been assigned to. Participants in a language channel will hear the translated audio and the original audio at a lower volume. 

Note: The original audio volume will return to 100% 8 seconds after an interpreter has stopped speaking. 

1. To end the interpretation session(s), the host must click Interpretation in the meeting controls. 

1. Once the Language Interpretation window opens, the host can click End to stop the sessions. 
2. The host can also click Manage Language Interpretation to make changes to the interpreter settings during a session.