An update to this. Still having a hard time. The most reliable way to get the mic state is to do an image search of the screen for the muted icon. This is somewhat easier with the current release of Meetings/Teams because the icon is no longer transparent with the video running behind it. It's now on an opaque bar. But the non-standard UI framework the application uses can make it difficult to identify which window to search. The controls are implemented in their own OS-level window/pane/container/whatever-you-call-it so the automation tool I use gives me ambiguous results.
@Fritz_H: Thanks for the suggestion of a hardware switch. It's similar to a software solution I had earlier, where I toggled the state of the microphone via the registry, bypassing Webex altogether. That has two disadvantages: 1) No one else on the meeting can tell that I'm muted. If someone else is unmuted and noise is coming through, I'm suspected of the bad behavior because my little "muted" icon is off. 2) If the state also gets set to mute in Webex for whatever reason (like, I want to turn on my little "muted" icon so people know that's not *MY* dog barking in the background) the external toggle doesn't re-enable it. Though it does re-enable my sign, making me think I'm unmuted.
Webex really seems to be trying hard to prevent automation attempts. They seem to have exactly one end-user use case in mind, and tough luck if you don't conform to that. You'd think they'd have these features for accessibility reasons if nothing else.
