Statement_of_Work__ASLInterpreting_CART_ERO_revised_DR_4407-CA.pdf

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Statement of Work, 15 Dec 2018

FEMA

FC3: Services for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Deaf-Blind Communities DR-4407-CA (California)

Statement of Work Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) DR-4407-CA – California

1.0 REFERENCES

a. DHS Language Services Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) Ordering Guide for FC3: Services for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deaf-Blind Communities, Version 1 dated March 10, 2016

b. Functional Category 3 (FC3) BPA Terms and Conditions

c. Attachment A, Performance Work Statement (PWS), dated November 30, 2015, DHS Agency-Wide

Strategic Sourcing Vehicle for Language Services, Functional Category 3 (FC3): Services for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deaf-Blind Communities

d. Attachment B, Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP), DHS Agency-Wide Strategic Sourcing Vehicle for Language Services, Functional Category 3 (FC3): Services for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deal-Blind Communities

2.0 REFERENCES

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has a requirement to provide reasonable accommodations for FEMA personnel to comply with federal laws and regulations. American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting services are needed to provide effective communication access for FEMA personnel who utilize sign language as their primary mode of communication as well as Communication Access Real-Time captioning for FEMA personnel who do not utilize sign language as their primary mode of communication in accordance with federal laws and regulations. These laws and regulations which include, but are not limited to, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended including section 508, and the Americans with Disabilities Act

(ADA).

FEMA is committed to ensuring the equal access of FEMA personnel with disabilities to all the benefits and privileges of their employment. This is accomplished by providing reasonable accommodations which meet the needs of their specific disability. For this accommodation that would mean effective communication access utilizing ASL interpreting services for FEMA personnel who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing, or Deaf-Blind who utilize ASL as their primary mode of communication and CART services for those who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing that do not utilize ASL as their primary mode of communication or others that use it in combination with other accommodations.

3.0 SCOPE

The contractor shall provide ASL, Conceptually Accurate Sign Language (CASE), Signed Exact English (SEE), or Sign Supported English interpreting and/or CART services as required for FEMA personnel working

Statement of Work, 15 Dec 2018

FEMA

in support of DR-4407 CA. The assignments shall be located within the disaster affected counties of DR-4407-

CA.

Authorization for travel outside the affected counties must be pre-approved by the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) prior to the travel and will be reimbursed in accordance with the Federal Travel Regulations. If travel outside the affected Counties is approved by the COR, the cost will be expensed against the travel contract line item (CLIN). FEMA shall not be responsible for any cost associated with travel outside the counties unless preapproved in writing with the COR or the Task Manager at a minimum of eight (8) hours in advance of the event, work related meetings, or other events to provide services for FEMA personnel who are Deaf, Hard of hearing, or Deaf-Blind.

This is a High Risk Task Order See contract terms and conditions for list of Government Officials

3.1 SERVICE TO BE PROVIDED

The contractor shall provide ASL, interpreters and/or CART services as requested. Services will be provided at the designated locations within the affected counties of DR-4407 CA and based on the work requirements of the FEMA personnel utilizing the services. Requests shall be made by the COR or Task Manager prior to the assignment. Assignments requested with a 24 hour notice or more, must be covered by the contractor. The contractor shall have the right to refuse an assignment when less than 24 hour notice is given. The contractor's refusal must be given within two (2) hours of the time the request was placed. If the contractor accepts the request and services are provided, the agency shall be billed at the hourly rate established. No special rates shall be used for requests placed with less than 24 hour notice. The contractor shall provide the COR/Task Manager the name(s) of the interpreter(s) as soon as possible or at a minimum of six (6) hours prior to the assignment.

3.2 SCHEDULING

The COR or the Task Manager will be responsible for coordinating and scheduling interpreter/CART requests. Assignment requests will be submitted via phone, written request, texts, and/or the contractor’s website if available, with requests for, changes to, or cancellations of interpreting services. The COR or Task Manager will provide pertinent information related to the assignment, including date, time, projected length of assignment, type of assignment, location, on site POC, on site POC phone number, sign language preference, talking points, and source language.

4.0 QUALIFICATIONS OF INTERPRETERS OR CART PROVIDER

Minimum personnel qualification: Tier 2: Since there is only one certified ASL interpreter living on the island, none of the subcontractors meet the minimum requirements. The employee will conduct an initial screening of subcontractors’ skills. All interpreters must go through an in-house screening process to determine minimum skill levels and ensure they meet the communication needs of the FEMA personnel requiring the reasonable accommodation. Contractor will provide a spreadsheet with interpreters’ name(s), ASL interpreting certification(s) and expiration date(s) (national or state levels only), years of professional, interpreting and/or linguistic related degrees, and other language proficiencies if requested. (Spoken English/Spanish/etc.)

All FEMA assignments involve a great deal of highly technical and specialized terminology from a variety of specialized areas (finance, contracts, citizenship, FEMA jargon, etc.) and the interpreters must have the ability

Statement of Work, 15 Dec 2018

FEMA

to accurately interpret and/or caption these and other concepts. Contractors/subcontractors will be expected to become familiar with FEMA terminology provided by the Task Manager(s) to the contractor and become familiar with terminology they are exposed to in the field. All interpreters shall conduct themselves according to the RID Code of Professional Conduct (PCP). All CART providers must hold a national certification and in good standing.

Once FEMA badges are acquired, badges may only be used to verify that they are contractors with FEMA and to gain access to assignment locations and shall not be used to access the military base or other federal facilities.

Interpreters are not advocates and are only to fulfill the role of ASL interpreter, not spoken language interpreters or advocates while in their role as subcontractors.

4.1 NUMBER OF INTERPRETERS OR CART REQUIRED PER ASSIGNMENT

The number of interpreters required is subject to the approval of the COR or Task Manager. In general, two (2) interpreters are needed for assignments however this will be at the discretion of the Task Managers, who are subject matter experts, in coordination with the contracting agency. Assignments requiring interpreting for presentations lasting more than two (2) hours shall have a minimum of 2 interpreters for that portion of the event. All other assignments will be at the discretion of the COR and/or Task Manager in a dialog with the contracting agency. Subcontract interpreters or CART providers cannot request or schedule interpreting services on the behalf of FEMA. While at an assignment and anyone other than the FEMA employee they are assigned to requests the interpreter/CART for assistance, they are to refer them to FEMA employee and simply interpret/provide transcription for the FEMA staff and others. They are not to act as an advocate or advise as they are there as interpreters/CART Transcriptionists only. If they are contacted on their off time, they are welcome to provide the survivor with FEMA contact information and encourage the survivor to request services via FEMA’s established process.

CART providers will require one (1) per event, per language.

4.2 ARRIVAL OF INTERPRETERS OR CART PROVIDER AND COVERAGE

All interpreters must have a valid government issued photo ID. Once FEMA contractor badges are acquired, subcontractors must wear them at all times and only remove them when they are interpreting on any type of media or social media. (FEMA badges cannot be photo copied or displayed while being recorded.) The COR or the Task Manager will provide the contractor with the requirements regarding accepted photo IDs.

Interpreters and/or CART providers shall arrive no later than fifteen (15) minutes prior to a scheduled assignment regardless of where the assignment is located. The contractor shall not bill the agency for any of the time described in this paragraph. Interpreter(s) shall interpret at all times when the employee is present. Interpreters must interpret any and all things communicated in the presence of the FEMA employee. CART providers will transcribe for the full duration of the event. Any subcontractor not willing to abide by these requirements should not accept assignments.

4.3 REASSIGNMENT OF THE INTERPRETER(S) AND/OR CART AS NEEDED

The COR or the Task Manager has the option to reassign the interpreter(s) and/or CART providers to another assignment as long as the replacement assignment does not create a valid ethical conflict. This change shall occur without an additional charge/cancellation fee with the stipulation that if the new assignment runs over the

Statement of Work, 15 Dec 2018

FEMA

original number of hours of the scheduled assignment, the difference will be charged. If the employee receiving the reasonable accommodation is out sick and services are not needed for that day, the cancelation policy stated in this document would apply if they are not reassigned to another assignment.

4.5 CLOSURE OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER

OR EMERGENCY Interpreters will not report to work if the federal government is closed due to inclement weather or emergency. If the closure/cancellation occurs with at least 2 business days’ notice, no cancellation fee or charges shall be assessed.

4.6 OTHER UNSCHEDULED FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CLOSURES

In the event of an unscheduled closure of the federal government, interpreters will not report to work or to their scheduled assignments. No cancellation fee or charges shall be assessed. The contractor will not bill the government for interpreter service hours when the government is closed.

4.7 FEDERAL HOLIDAYS

Interpreting services may be required on federal holidays and weekends during a disaster declaration and the contract can bill for the services received at the regular rate.

4.8 INCLEMENT WEATHER- NON-CLOSURES

In the event of severe inclement weather or an emergency, interpreter is responsible for calling their hiring agency, the contractor, first and if prior approval is given, may contact the Task Manager to determine if the assignment is still scheduled. The subcontract interpreters shall abide by the OPM delay arrival policy pertaining to Federal employees at each identified work facility. If the interpreting services have been canceled, the contractor may assess the cancellation fee for requests for services that are canceled with less than 2 business days’ notice. If the interpreting service is still required, and the contractor is not able to provide the service, the contractor will not bill the government for interpreting service hours for any portion of the original request when required services are not provided. Only the COR or Task Manager can cancel an assignment and may choose to reassign the interpreter(s) instead so interpreters must have approval from their contracting agency before leaving an assignment. The contractor must receive approval from the COR or the Task Manager before cancelling any services or sending people home from an assignment ending early or they may not bill FEMA for any portion of the originally scheduled assignment. Since this is a reasonable accommodation any changes must be run by the employee receiving the accommodation first.

4.8.1 NO SHOWS

In the event any or all of the on-call interpreters are unable to come to work, the contractor is required to notify the requesting organization's point of contact (POC). The contractor will be required to replace the interpreter(s). In the event the contractor is unable to supply the agency with replacement interpreters; the contractor will not bill the government for interpreting service.

4.9 HOURLY RATE FOR SERVICES

The contractor shall bill the agency using the hourly rate agreed upon in the bid.

4.9.1 REIMBURSEMENT FOR SERVICES

Regardless of assignment duration, the contractor shall be reimbursed for the number of hours originally

Statement of Work, 15 Dec 2018

FEMA

assigned. Assignments lasting more than the original assignment shall be invoiced for the actual duration of the assignment not the estimated duration requested by the COR or the Task Manager. For billing purposes, the contractor shall round up to the nearest half-hour.

5.0 CANCELLATION OF ASSIGNMENT

5.1 The COR or the Task Manager shall contact the contractor via telephone, email, agency website (if available), or facsimile.

5.2 Service requests that are canceled with less than 2 business days of notice prior to the event shall be reimbursed for minimum two (2) hours or actual scheduled hours. Service requests canceled with more than 2 business days of notice prior to the event shall not be reimbursed.

5.3 If an assignment request is canceled less than 2 business days prior to the event, the COR or Task Manager may reassign the interpreter or CART to another assignment covered by this SOW without incurring cancellation charges after first consulting with the employee utilizing the interpreter or CART services as a reasonable accommodation.

6.0 ASSIGNMENT LOG

The COR and/or the Task Manager shall maintain a log of the date an order was placed, the time the order was placed, the job number, the date of the assignment, the start time of the assignment, the anticipated duration and a description of the event for each assignment given to the interpreters. The log shall be made available to the Contracting Officer (CO) for inspection.

7.0 EVALUATION OF SERVICES

Recipients of interpreting/CART services may provide feedback on the quality of the services received to the COR or Task Manager. This feedback will be provided to the contractor by the COR or the Task Manager within 24 hours of receipt of the feedback. The contractor shall take appropriate action based on the feedback and provide the COR with a response to the feedback within 24 hours of receipt of the feedback. The COR or the Task Manager and the contractor will meet per the COR request to conduct a quality review of services being provided by the contractor.

8.0 INVOICING

The contractor shall invoice on a monthly basis. The invoice will include the number of hours of services provided each month, by interpreters/CART provider. The contractor will only bill for hours of service provided during each billing cycle as well as any additional fees owed. Contractors will follow the invoicing instructions outlined in the Functional Category 3 DHS Strategic Language Services BPAs at B.22, Invoice Instructions. The invoice will also include the contractor's business address, office phone, fax number and email address.

9.0 EQUIPMENT – GOVERNMENT FURNISHED

Contractor provides all required equipment

10.0 DELIVERY SCHEDULE

All work shall be completed within 1 year of Date of Award.

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11.0 PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

As needed for employees needing a reasonable accommodation for FEMA DR-4407-CA.

12.0 MISCELLANEOUS

If the contractor believes this will not meet FEMA's needs they may address this with the COR regarding changes. However, any change that will affect the cost of this effort must be approved by the CO. Any discoveries during negotiations which benefit FEMA’s needs shall be discussed with the requestor.