A Message from our CEO
“Vista Higher Learning was founded with a mission to raise the teaching of languages to a higher level. Learning a language requires practice using different types of activities and interactions, and our specialized teams focus on creating and improving all content to meet the needs of all language learners.
As a part of our mission, we strive to be a leader in the creation of accessible instructional materials for all learners across every interaction with our products and services.”
—Jon Aram, CEO, Vista Higher Learning
Through internal reviews, input from our users, and outside expert testing, we continuously seek to improve the usability and accessibility of our products and services.
Digital Materials
Vista Higher Learning (VHL) uses the standards established in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d) and W3C (WCAG 2.1) guidelines to evaluate and improve its digital products.
VHL maintains a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) for its online products. The VPAT is available to qualified instructors and administrators via VHL Technical Support at 800.922.6003 or via email at [email protected].
VHL partners with QA Infotech (QAIT), an ISO 9001:2008, 20000-1:2011, 27001:2013 and CMMI Level III certified company that specializes in providing independent quality assurance and accessibility software testing for large and small companies, including many in the educational technology industry.
QAIT pairs sighted and non-sighted test engineers together to help ensure product testing mirrors the actual user experience for our learning solutions. Learn more about QAIT’s testing approach at https://www.qainfotech.com.
Printed Materials
Accessible print materials are available on request at no charge through the following sources:
VHL Technical Support
Low resolution PDF and, for certain materials, DOCX files are available upon request through VHL’s Technical Support team. An official disability / accessibility department member will need to initiate the request. If such a department does not exist, a qualified teacher or instructor can also make this request on behalf of a student.
For more details on this process, contact Technical Support at 800.922.6003 or email [email protected].
AccessText
A nonprofit organization founded and funded by the Association of American Publishers and administered by the Accessibility Solutions and Research Center of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Member schools use the online interface to easily request publisher files for qualified students. Titles already in the archive can be downloaded instantly, and membership is free for publishers and institutions.
Requests for files, or membership in AccessText, can be made through the web site at: http://www.accesstext.org.
NOTE AccessText serves only Higher Education students and institutions.
Accessible Textbook Finder
Part of the AccessText Network, ATF allows ISBN searches across multiple vendors and organizations that provide and create accessible files. Search results provide links to each file source.
Search the ATF at http://www.accesstext.org/accessible-textbook-finder.
Learning Ally (formerly Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic)
Provides audiobooks and assistive technologies to help students learn in the classroom.
Requests can be made by contacting Learning Ally at 800.221.4792 or via their web site at https://www.learningally.org.
NIMAC (National Instructional Materials Access Center)
Federally-funded, national electronic file repository that makes National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS)-conformant files available for the production of core print instructional materials in specialized formats. NIMAC makes these files available for download to Authorized Users in the United States and its territories through an online database.
Visit NIMAC at https://www.nimac.us.
Files can be used to create a variety of specialized formats, such as braille, audio, or digital text, on behalf of qualifying blind, visually-impaired or print- disabled students in elementary or secondary school.
NOTE NIMAC serves only primary and secondary students and institutions.
Learner Support
Vista Higher Learning maintains a partnership with Aira, a company that maintains a network of trained, professional agents to remotely assist people who are blind or low vision with virtually any task, every day. Aira support for blind or low vision students accessing our digital learning materials can be requested using the form below.
Visit Aira at https://aira.io