Vista Higher Learning strives to make our products and services accessible to everyone. We continuously improve the usability and experience for our educators and students. Through internal reviews, customer input, and outside expert testing, our goal is to deliver the best products for language education. To learn more about our commitment, process, or how to report an accessibility issue, check out our Accessibility Statement.
| FEATURE | DESCRIPTION | AVAILABILITY |
| Alternative Text | Short, embedded text descriptions of images for accessible technology (AT), like screen readers. | Always available |
| Long Descriptions | Longer text descriptions for complex images, such as maps, that are visible to all users. | Always available |
| Audio Transcripts | Text version of the audio presented alongside the audio player. | Educator-managed |
| Video Transcripts | Text of a video’s audio presented alongside the player with read-along highlighting. | Educator-managed |
| Subtitles & Closed Captions | Text of the video’s audio overlaid on the player. Available in both English and the target language. | Educator-managed |
| Audio Description | Narration track that describes key visual elements in media. | Always available |
| Text Input | Allows students to type answers instead of recording audio. | Educator-managed |
| Manual Mode | Allows students to move through activity steps at their own pace instead of automatically. | Always available |
| Disable Autoplay | Stops audio from playing automatically; play buttons remain available. | Always available |
| Adjustable Time Limit | Set time limits per student for each assessment. | Educator-managed |
| Additional Attempts | Adjust how many tries all students have on auto-graded activities. | Educator-managed |
| Individual Assigning | Assign work to and/or adjust the due date for specific students. | Educator-managed |
| Accept Late Work | Forgive late penalties for work submitted after the due date. | Educator-managed |
| Reset Work | Clear a student submission so an assignment can be redone. | Educator-managed |
| Accessibility Index | Spreadsheet that shows which activities in the program are accessible. | Educator-Only Resource |
Please note: Feature support varies by program and edition.
Leveraging Accessibility Features
Interaction Settings
Student Interaction Settings in your roster and section-level settings control many of the platform and content accessibility features.
Publisher-recommended default settings:
- Audio Transcripts are disabled
- Subtitles and Closed Captions are set to the target language only
- Video Transcripts are disabled
- AI Interaction Mode is disabled
To enable student-specific settings in your section, you will need to adjust the Student Interaction Settings. Please follow the Interaction Settings Guide.
Adjustable Time Limits for Assessment
Time limits on assessments are adjustable per assessment per student to support extended time accommodations. Check out the guide to Assigning Assessments to learn how to use this feature.
Adjustable Attempt Count
During course setup, set the number of tries students have on auto-graded activities (e.g., fill-in-the-blanks) per gradebook category. You can adjust this setting at any time in Course Settings. Learn more in the guide to Course Setup & Assignment Settings.
Individualized Assigning
This feature enables you to assign different due dates for the same assignment, providing extended time for students with accommodations. You can also customize what is assigned to individual students to ensure that your course is pedagogically complete and accommodates student needs. Check out the Individualized Assigning guide for more information.
Accepting Late Work
Instead of extending the due date, you can choose to forgive late work. This can be applied individual assignments or to a specific student for a particular lesson. To learn more, review our guides for accepting a late assignment and the Late Work tool in the Gradebook.
Resetting Work
When setting up your course gradebook, you can configure how many attempts students get on auto-graded assignments. For instructor-graded assignments, you can manually reset a student's submission from the gradebook, if additional attempts are required. Learn how to reset an assignment on the Support Center.
Accessibility Index
The Accessible Activities Index is a spreadsheet of all the activities in a program that identifies which are accessible according to Vista’s custom content validation. You can find this document in the program’s Resources section under the Accessibility category. This list is intended as a guide for course planning and to help educators avoid activities that may cause difficulties for Accessible Technology (AT) users. Please consider your students’ unique needs when assigning work, as some activities will be impossible to complete for some students, despite being marked accessible by our validations. For example, a student who cannot speak cannot complete most recording activities.
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