Amendment 2 Questions and Responses.pdf

RFP No. 75N98025R00007

RFP No. 75N98025R00007 – Additional Questions and Responses

The original solicitation was posted on May 16, 2025 and canceled on June 12, 2025. The following questions were received by the government but were not answered before the cancelation. Since the cancelation, the Government has updated and revised the Request for Proposal, Change the Performance Work Statement (PWS) to a Statement of Work (SOW), and Removed the Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP). We have tried to respond to the original questions as best as possible, yet the original references and citations were updated due to changes.

Certifications and Requirements for Interpreters

1. Question: Acceptable Certifications for Interpreters

SOW Section 5 states that all Interpreters “must have acquired at least one of the two national certifications offered by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc.” Section 5 defines these two certifications as the National Interpreter Certification (NIC) and the Certified Deaf Interpreter (CDI) Certification. The next subsection lists several other certifications but does not state that these are the “national certifications” required by Section 5.5..4. If an Interpreter has at least one of the certifications listed in Section 5 but neither of the two certifications listed, is that person acceptable for the purposes of this solicitation?

Response: Yes.

2. Questions: Will NIH consider adding the Board for Evaluation of Interpreters (BEI) certification as an acceptable credential? The BEI certification assesses an interpreter's ability to accurately and effectively translate between American Sign Language (ASL) and English.

Response: Any recognized national certifications meet the minimum requirements specified in section 5.5..3 and additionally those with BEI certification will be considered.

3. Question: SOW Section 5.5..3 (“Interpreter Certifications”) requires that all interpreters hold certification from RID. NIH’s objective that the contractor establish a pipeline/internship program for early career and/or scientific interpreters from the Statement of Need may require the assignment of qualified pre-certified interpreters. Would the NIH consider allowing qualified interpreters who are pre-vetted by the contractor but do not yet possess RID certification to perform the services in order to support this objective?

Response: Yes

4. Question: If an interpreter cannot be found, will a virtual interpreter be accepted?

5. Question: Since RID organization is problematic, will you accept qualified interpreters from other certifications such as BEI, etc.?

Response: They will be considered if vetted by the service provider.

6. Question: SOW Section 5.5.3 Interpreter Certifications and subsections does not mention

Comprehensive Skills Certificate (CSC) one of the oldest and most respected RID certifications held by many highly skilled, seasoned interpreters. It also does not recognize NAD certification. Will NIH add CSC and NAD III, IV, and IV as acceptable certifications?

Response: Yes, NIH will accept the CSC, NAD III, IV, and IV as valid certifications because they are part of a former certification mechanism under NAD. Interpreters with these certifications still adhere to RID’s Certification Maintenance Program (CMP) to receive CEUs (Continuing Education Units) so that their certification does not lapse.

Certifications and Requirements for CART/Captioners The SOW specifies that all CART Captioners must demonstrate knowledge, skills, and abilities in the Core Competency areas defined by the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) and have achieved at a minimum the Certified Realtime Captioner (CRC) certification. However, NCRA offers several other certifications that also demonstrate the necessary skills and competencies for CART services. Limiting the acceptable certification to CRC may exclude many highly qualified CART Captioners who hold other NCRA certifications.

6. Question: Would NIH be willing to expand the list of acceptable NCRA certifications for this solicitation to include other relevant certifications, such as the Registered Professional Reporter (RPR) and Certified Broadcast Captioner (CBC), to ensure that a broader pool of qualified CART Captioners can provide services?

7. Questions: Regarding Acceptance of NVRA Certification for CART Captioners, the National Verbatim Reporters Association (NVRA) offers certifications that signify advanced knowledge, skills, and abilities for providing CART services. These certifications are widely acknowledged as being excellent indicators of a CART professionals’ abilities. Section 5.7 (“CART Writer Requirements”) outlines the requirements for CART providers. Would the NIH accept providers who hold NVRA certification?

Additionally, would the NIH also accept CART providers who adhere to the tenants of the NVRA’ Code of Ethics in lieu of the Captioners Code of Professional Ethics from the NCRA (if they have NVRA certification instead of NCRA)?

Response: Yes, NVRA specializes in verbatim transcription, legal, medical, and broadcast captioning fields and is acceptable.

8. Question: SOW Section 5.7 CART Writer Requirements, states “All CART writers must meet the following requirements: Demonstrate knowledge, skills and abilities in the Core Competency areas defined by the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) and have achieved at a minimum Certified Realtime Captioner (CRC)/ NCRA.” The National Verbatim Reporters Association (NVRA) is also a nationally recognized professional organization made up of voice writers who provide verbatim transcripts and real-time services as court reporters, CART providers and captioners. Will NIH recognize and accept writers who hold certifications from the NVRA?

Response: Yes.

CART and 508 requirements

9. Question: Could you clarify how offerors should demonstrate compliance with the 508 Accessibility

Standards—specifically in the areas of Technical Accessibility (TT), Functional Accessibility (FT), and Information Format (IF)?

Response: Here is a link to the Revised 508 Standards and 255 Guidelines.

10. Question: Is Verbatim Transcription the same as CART?

Response: Verbatim transcription is a word for word transcript of what was spoken and other sounds heard in the room. It can be transcribed in real-time or in post-production listening to an audio recording.

11. Question: Can you clarify if Onsite Transcription is the same as CART?

Response: CART is computer assisted real-time transcription and can be transcribed onsite or remotely. Onsite transcription requires a captioner to be onsite in-person.

12. Question: Could you please clarify how many hours are estimated for 11 files of Timecoded Transcription?

Response: The hours would be variable based on the recording length, not related to the number of files.

13. Question: Will you please change the number of files to the equivalent hours for the other listings as well?

Response: No changes will be made due to this.

14. Question: Can you change the minutes to hours for Post-Production Captioning with Transcriptions and similar services?

Responses: No Changes will be made

15. Question: SOW; Section 10.2 Equipment and Connectivity, states, “To communicate effectively across all of NIH’s 27 Institutes and Centers and their unique needs and scientific missions, a captioning service provider must demonstrate mastery of a full suite of professional software and equipment necessary to support NIH program operations, including transcription and captioning software, Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe software, PC and Apple computers, audiovisual and teleconferencing equipment, and caption encoders to provide onsite data feeds for captioning.” How often does NIH require the use of encoders for captioning services, and will NIH inform the vendor at the time of request when an encoder will be required?

Response: Multiple Caption encoders are used every day for captioning of live streamed events on the NIH videocast page. Our monthly average is 52 events. These encoders are in-house, so it is not necessary to reserve with a vendor.

16. Question: SOW; Section 10.4 Provide Post-Production Captioning and Verbatim Transcription, states, “NIH archives all web and videocasts. All media posted publicly online by the government is required to have a 100% verbatim transcript, a real-time caption file, and/or a post-production captioning file, per Section 508 to ensure every American has equal access to federal content.” Can NIH provide historical data on how often NIH has requested a real-time caption file or a post-production captioning file for a web and videocast event?

Response: The TOC doesn’t handle these requests regularly. These requests would most often come from CIT’s Videocast page. Transcript files can be downloaded directly from there for any broadcasted event. I requested the Videocast team to provide a monthly or yearly count estimate, if they have the ability.

17. Question: SOW; Section 10.4 Provide Post-Production Captioning and Verbatim Transcription, bullet 4, states, “Contractor must have the ability to manipulate poor audio recordings…” Will a vendor be penalized if the audio recording provided by NIH is deemed to be of severe poor sound quality to the point that a vendor is unable to decipher the spoken words?

Response: Vendor would NOT be penalized in that case.

18. Question: SOW; Section 11.5 Requesting 508 Services: Government’s Responsibility, bullet 3 states, “If an event for captioning is cancelled, Events Management will provide at least 24-hour notice to the contractor and incur no cost.” Will NIH consider changing this to align with industry standards, wherein

NIH will not incur a cost for cancellations provided with more than two full business days’ notice cancellation?

Response: Yes, we will align with industry standards.

19. Question: Will the agency remove the request to provide captioning in other spoken languages to/from English? NIH has a global reach, and translation is sometimes required for guest speakers in various languages for written content, such as transcription, post-production captioning, and live real-time captioning (including Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Swedish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Farsi, Greek, and Hebrew).

Response: This will remain in place.

20. Question: Section 10.3, states “When captioning for web-based platforms the contractor must ensure seamless connective compatibility through iCAP and telephone lines.” Can NIH clarify what iCAP is?

Will NIH allow vendors to provide captioning services through another platform if it allows for connection to the web-based platforms identified in the solicitation?

Response: iCap is the captioning software that provides connection to aiMedia’s EEG 492 Caption encoders used by NIH Multi-Media. All broadcasts on NIH’s Videocast web streaming platform exclusively use these EEG 492 Encoders.

21. Question: SOW; Section 18.1 Video Producers. Can NIH clarify if this is intended to be in this solicitation? If so, can NIH clarify when this would apply to the work under the contract?

Response: The producers are not part of this solicitation.

Cost Sharing and Partnerships

22. Question: Will NIH cover the costs of training requirements, as these hours are not free?

Response: If referring to Deaf culture competency training under Staffing Plan for Accommodation Services, this informal and can be accomplished with video tutorials posted on the intranet for clinicians to watch.

23. SOW; Section 3 Statement of Need, states “…developing a partnership with a Deaf university or research institution for ASL students interested in specializing in STEM fields to intern at NIH as part of their education. This internship program might also create a pipeline of scientific interpreters at NIH.” In connection with this are the following questions:

a. Question: Can NIH clarify if the requirement is to develop a partnership with a Deaf university or research institution, or is it an internship program?

Response: The internship is an example of a community-building initiative that says, “contractor is encouraged to partner with NIH.” The expectation is that the contractor support and collaborate on mutually beneficial activities at leave twice a year.

b. Question: Can NIH clarify if the internship requirement falls under the “at least two NIH-sponsored community-building events per year to raise awareness on Deaf culture, and to collaborate with NIH and its external partners in the local community on joint initiatives?”

Response: Yes, it would qualify.

c. Question: Can NIH clarify how these costs would be incorporated into the contract? Will there be a CLIN(s) to which the cost for this program can be billed?

Response: The contractor is not expected to fund these initiatives, just to participate in.

d. Question: Can NIH clarify their expectations or if this is a deliverable, how it would be handled if there are no students qualified for or interested in an internship at NIH?

Response: This is an unknown variable.

e. Question: Can NIH also confirm that there are enough Deaf employees willing to have interpreting interns on site during their meetings and assignments?

Response: The demand for onsite interpreters consistently exceeds the supply.

24. Question: Can NIH clarify if interns would be able to work prior to being certified?

Response: Interns may work on the contract with supervision by experienced interpreters, at contractor’s discretion.

25. Question: Can NIH provide information on how much of the vendor’s time would be spent working on and implementing the community events?

Response: This is difficult to quantify, but amount of time would not be unreasonable.

26. Questions: As a requirement for services, the first 2 out of 4 are unpaid service requirements; is NIH asking for unpaid/volunteer work from experienced and skilled Deaf culture and Deaf ASL teachers under this solicitation? It is the standard in the interpreting field that hearing interpreters do not provide these types of trainings. Historically, the Deaf professionals provide the training/class with an interpreter voicing for them. When a non-Deaf interpreter provides this type of class, they are often accused of stealing work from the Deaf, and their image in the community (and potentially their ability to get work) are tarnished. In order to ensure coverage for the class can be provided, will NIH clarify that these classes would be done by a CDI and would be billable as CDI hours?

Response: These are NOT unpaid service requirements. Time spent and services provided are billable.

27. Question: What type of support or partnership does NIH anticipate offering for the Deaf university and STEM ASL student internship initiative?

Response: We are looking to partner with universities to collaborate on internship programs funded by a grant for student interpreters interested in working at NIH onsite in labs with deaf researchers.

Fill-Rates and Response Times

28. Question: Timelines for entering service requests - What are the current average lead times for service requests? What percentage of requests are urgent (less than 24 hours’ notice)?

Response: Majority of requests are entered more than 30 days in advance. A very small percentage are entered less than 24 hours.

29. Question: How exactly is the 98-100% fill rate calculated? Is it based on total requests, requests with minimum notice periods, or some other metric?

Response: Most requests are filled the same day (99-100%). This is calculated by the difference between the date the request was entered and date it was filled.

30. Question: Availability: What are the expected response times for on-demand requests for the Clinical Center? Is there a tiered response time requirement based on urgency?

Response: Section 5.4 references the Priority Service for Patients.

31. Question: Priority Service for Patients states, “Emergency requests must be filled immediately, and a qualified interpreter is expected to arrive onsite ready to work within 60 minutes of the call or within 30 minutes for a virtual call.” Can NIH clarify how it is determined if the request must be onsite vs virtual?

Where are the locations of the clinical patient services, are they only in the 6 research campus locations? Can the vendor determine, based on availability and location, whether virtual will have to be necessary based on the 24/7 and emergency 60 mins onsite and 30 min virtual requirements, especially for Montana, which has a considerably low amount of certified interpreters in the area?

Response: The patients receiving services are only in the Clinical Center on Bethesda main campus. The person who enters the request (POC) for the patient consults with the patient to determine what type of service is needed. In some cases, virtual may be opted for because it can be accessed sooner.

Location Related

32. Question: Can you confirm the specific physical locations where onsite ASL interpreting and CART services will be delivered?

Response: Services must be provided to anyone working for NIH nationwide. The locations are listed here - Research Campus Locations | NIH Intramural Research Program

33. Question: The SOW states ' 27 Institutes and Centers'...'main campus in Bethesda, and remote locations across the country' and also states ...'Place of Performance - Services shall be provided across NIH on Main Campus, regional remote facilities, and campuses nationwide, using local providers whenever possible' This is followed by a link to the Research Campus Locations. To facilitate preparation of the cost proposal please can the Government provide a list of all the locations including the 'regional remote facilities where services are to be provided, the historic level of each service at each location, and if the services were provided on-site or remote.

Response: This information cannot be provided. Please review the link for known facilities and set hour requirements for services needs.

Other Questions

34. Question: Will NIH only award one specialty to an agency’s request, such as Virtual Interpreting Services, while allowing other agencies to provide other types of services?

Response: No, this is a comprehensive contract awarded to one vendor capable of providing all the services required.

35. Question: The SOW states: “Our funding model enables Deaf and hard of hearing individuals to request the accommodation services quickly and easily that they need to perform the essential duties of their job and fully participate in social activities, training/educational seminars, conferences, and otherwise enjoy all the benefits of working at NIH.” Does this mean that each Deaf individual will be responsible for making their own requests? How many Deaf employees are currently employed at NIH?

Is there a designated person responsible for managing and submitting accommodation requests online, or will each Deaf employee enter their own requests?

Response: NIH has about 85 deaf and hard of hearing employees. Due to the daily volume of requests, specific preferences of each, and requirement to provide continuity of operations for patients around the clock NIH requires the contractor to provide a scheduling system that is FISMA compliant and a scheduling team to manage the system 24/7.

36. Question: Will NIH remove foreign languages such as Spanish, Chinese, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Swedish, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Farsi, Greek, and Hebrew from the scope?

Response: Spoken language is not a requirement for this contract.

Pricing Tables Clarification

37. Question: Pricing Tables Captioning & Transcription and Other 508 Services Post-Production (Caption files) and Post-Production (video files) each are priced by the number of files. Can NIH clarify the size of the file/length of the video for each category? Timecoded transcription requires a quote for “10 files” Can NIH specify a length of video for each file to be quoted?

Response: This will vary.

38. Question: Pricing Tables: 504 Accommodation and 508 Accessibility Services Combined: There are 10,098 hours of CART listed in the first pricing table for the base year. Can NIH clarify if these hours are remote or onsite CART?

Response: This is combined CART usage, but the majority of CART requested is remote.

39. Question: Pricing Tables: If the 10,098 hours of CART are a combination of onsite and remote, the pricing structure of each is extremely different and the hours would need to be divided into two pricing lines. Can NIH provide the pricing structure (if applicable) for vendors to be able to provide the lowest possible pricing for remote CART while ensuring costs are covered for onsite CART?

Response: We receive very few requests for onsite CART.

40. Question: The SOW explains that in 2024, 71,000 contract service hours were used. In order for vendors to provide the most competitive pricing, it is critical to understand the breakdown of this work.

For example, 71,000 hours could represent 35,500 2-hour jobs, which are very costly and difficult to fill, or they could represent 34 full-time all-day interpreters/writers, which is much more cost effective and can be filled at a much lower cost for NIH. It is likely that the numbers are somewhere in the middle of those two examples, but the more information on the breakdown of hours/advance scheduling vendors can obtain, the more cost effective we can make our pricing. Can NIH provide clarification on how the interpreting and CART service hours were broken up to allow vendors to provide the best price possible relative to volume, assignment type, and location?

Response: Since April 1, 2025, when federal workers were ordered to return to in-person workstations, this is the breakdown of the services in April. The majority of services provided onsite are at Bethesda main campus.

On-site CART 1%Remote CART

12%

On-Site Basic 27%

On-site Scientific 5%

Virtual Basic 37%

Virtual Scientific 18%

Virtual Deaf Interpreting

Scientific 0%

CURRENT SERVICE HOURS

Scheduling System Compliance

41. Question: Will contractors be required to complete a FISMA Moderate Authority to Operate (ATO) or just follow Low Impact baseline security controls?

Response: Yes, the system will go through the ATO process using the current security categorization of a Low impact system. However, it is possible that security categorization can change to a Moderate baseline since ISS collects, stores or maintain PII.

42. Question: Could you please confirm if any specific documentation or evidence will be required from the contractor to demonstrate compliance with FISMA Low security standards?

Response: Yes, and it should be included with your proposal.

43. Question: Can you confirm whether completing a Privacy Threshold Analysis (PTA) is a strict requirement under this contract, even though the solicitation indicates that no Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is involved?

Response: Yes, it is a strict requirement under the contract. According to the current PTA, ISS collects, stores or maintains PII. PII refers to name, email address, etc. It may not be sensitive PII, however, the system collects this information.

44. Question: Is a System Security Plan (SSP) required at the proposal stage, or only after award?

Response: Every system is required to have the System Security and Privacy Plan. ISS currently has a System Security and Privacy Plan in place. There is no available information to show that during the proposal stage the SSP is a requirement.

45. Question: Are signed NDAs and compliance with FIPS 140-validated encryption required prior to contract award, or upon contract execution?

Response: Prior to awarding the contract, the assessment team will validate if the system is compliant with FIPS 140 encryption standards during security control testing.

Integration with Xtech

46. Question: Could the government provide more detail about the specifications or APIs for integrating with the newly acquired NIH resource management reservation system?

Response: The resource management reservation system is the Xytech Media Operations Platform. The goal is to utilize the platform’s Representational State Transfer (REST) Application Programming Interface (API) to communicate with candidate’s interpreting reservation system for a nightly data push from candidate’s system to the Media Operations Platform. Data would include: Candidate’s work order # to input into a field within Media Operations Platform work order, Interpreter contact information, and Captioner contact information.

47. Question: Please provide details on the Government’s 'newly acquired government-owned resource management system' so that we can confirm that our proposed solution can communicate with this system.

Response: The resource management reservation system is the Xytech Media Operations Platform. The goal is to utilize the platform’s Representational State Transfer (REST) Application Programming Interface (API) to communicate with candidate’s interpreting reservation system for a nightly data push from candidate’s system to the Media Operations Platform. Data would include: Candidate’s work order # to input into a field within Media Operations Platform work

48. Question: SOW; Statement of Need states, “…able to communicate with a newly acquired government-owned resource management reservation system.” Can NIH clarify what the resource management reservation system is so that the vendor can confirm if their web-based application with mobile interface can communicate with it?

Response: The resource management reservation system is the Xytech Media Operations Platform. The goal is to utilize the platform’s Representational State Transfer (REST) Application Programming Interface (API) to communicate with candidate’s interpreting reservation system for a nightly data push from candidate’s system to the Media Operations Platform. Data would include: Candidate’s work order # to input into a field within Media Operations Platform work

Security Clearance Process/Timeline

49. Question: Are subcontractor key personnel subject to the same Tier 1 background check requirements as the prime contractor?

Response: Yes - all staff, employees, contractors, subcontractors etc. that require physical and/or logical access to NIH are subject to the HSPD-12 and FIPS 201-3 requirements which require a minimum of a Tier 1 background investigation, successful completion of FBI fingerprinting and any additional prescreening requirements set by NIH DPS in order to be authorized for an interim badge pending the completion of the background investigation. The final eligibility for the badge will be done when the investigation is completed. Non-US persons will have additional requirements and must be pre-registered in the Visit NIH portal before they are allowed to enter onto NIH campus.

50. Question: What are the specific steps or timeline to initiate the Tier 1 background checks for personnel?

Response: The NIH IC Program Office Administrative Officer will handle sponsorship of badge requests and those will be sent to the NIH personnel security office for prescreening and background investigation checks. It’s recommended that staff be entered 4-6 weeks ahead of their anticipated start date to give enough time to compete the prescreening process. Non-US persons will have additional requirements and must be pre-registered in the Visit NIH portal before they are allowed to enter onto NIH campus.

51. Question: When is HSPD-12 credentialing expected to be completed for proposed staff?

Response: Staff that received a conditional offer for employment must successfully complete prescreening and be issued their badge in order to start work. The average timeline to complete this is 30 days from the day the badge is sponsored, to when the candidate is ready to be issued the badge. However, this is contingent on the applicant completing ALL prescreening requirements in a timely manner (within the 7 days’ time allotted). Security Badge and Clearance Process, states, ‘DPSAC ensures all contract personnel assigned to work on-site are screened prior to working at NIH’ and ‘Employees and contractors who require access to NIH facilities will be required to undergo the Personal Identity Verification (PIV) badging process and will be subject to a background investigation.’

52. Question: Can NIH clarify if the screening from DPSAC would allow the provider physical access for the length of the contract?

Response: The badge length will depend on the length of the contract/project and the PIV badge can be valid for up to 5 years if that duration is needed.

a. Question: Can NIH clarify that “access to NIH facilities requires a PIV” means computer access?

Response: Access to NIH facilities and/or computer access requires a PIV card.

53. Questions: SOW: Security Badge and Clearance Process, states, “DPSAC ensures all contract personnel assigned to work on-site are screened prior to working at NIH” Many of our interpreters have gone through a full government background check and have obtained suitability, national clearance and government badges. Will reciprocity be offered for interpreters from other government agencies?

Response: There are reciprocity guidelines that must be met in order to be able to accept a prior investigation, to include: investigation completed was at the same tier or higher than what is required for the NIH position, the investigation was favorably adjudicated and within scope (5 years), favorable completion of NIH prescreening (security background forms and fingerprinting), etc. NIH Personnel Security will review the prior background history and make that determination as part of the NIH prescreening process. If an interpreter has an active PIV with another agency that they are still currently employed with, NIH DPS can provide assistance with provisioning access but the agencies personnel security group will need to provide verification of favorably adjudicated investigation and credential eligibility.

Technical Evaluation Factors

54. Question: Will NIH consider changing the Evaluation Criteria to include a scoring of an offeror’s

“understanding” in one criterion only? Such a change will enable offerors to avoid repetition in their responses.

Response: Evaluation Criteria will not be changed.

55. Question: In order to offer the Government a more cost-effective solution, can an offeror adjust or expand the CLINs outlined in Article B.3 (“Pricing Schedule”).

Response: The pricing schedule is an outline of the overall requirement. Once the base IDIQ contract is awarded, Task Orders can be negotiated for cost effective solution.

56. Question: Instructions to Offerors B.1.a.4 Schedule; since no formal schedule could be set without discussions with the COR, we assume this schedule would be a tentative schedule which can be adjusted later to meet the needs of the NIH COR, consumers, and other staff. Can NIH confirm if this is accurate?

Response: The schedule is tentative.

Transition Plan

57. Question: Transition Timeline: What is the expected transition period from the incumbent contractor?

Will there be an overlap period where both contractors provide services?

Response: Due to tight timelines, overlap will be minimal if at all.

58. Question: Transition Plan: Section 13.1 of the SOW is titled "Transition Plan." There is no specific reference to a Transition Plan in the instructions for the Technical and Business volumes, nor is this topic addressed in the Evaluation Factors (Section M). Are offerors required to include a Transition Plan in the Technical Volume of their proposals? Or, will the preparation of a plan be required of the successful offeror only following contract award?

Response: Transition Plan is required in the technical volume.

59. Question: If a Plan is required in the proposal, will it count towards the page limit for the Technical Volume?