ADM 527

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Request for Proposal (RFP)

Porterville College
Disability Resource Center
Proposals Due: October 4, 2005

Solicitation
The Disability Resource Center at Porterville College, hereinafter referred to as the DRC, invites the presentation of written proposals for consulting services to:

  • Provide recommendations for specific actions that can be taken to facilitate legislative compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, and Section 508. 
  • Assist the DRC in the development of a strategic, prioritized action plan to implement new procedures for providing closed-caption services mandated by the State of California.
  • Identify specific solutions to post-production captioning of inventoried videos.
  • Provide assistance in implementing informational sessions to faculty to insure media is not aired without captions readily available.
  • Provide assistance in implementing policies and procedures insuring all distance education, educational broadcasts, and teleconferences are closed-captioned.

Background
Porterville College is located at 100 East College Avenue, Porterville, California, in Southeastern Tulare County. The population of the Porterville urban area is approximately 40,000 persons and that of the surrounding service area is 90,000 persons. Porterville College is the northernmost college in the Kern Community College District, which serves an area of some 24,000 square miles in all or portions of Kern, Tulare, Inyo, and San Bernardino Counties. Other colleges in the district are Bakersfield College in Bakersfield and Cerro Coso Community College in Ridgecrest.  The student population is approximately 4,500 and is extremely diverse due in part to the urban area, farm labor, and agriculture. 

 

The Disability Resource Center provides support services to approximately 600 students with disabilities and is the main point of contact for disability related issues and legislative compliance.  The DRC is quickly approaching a deadline of January 1, 2006, set by the State of California, to come into compliance with Section 508 of the ADA, requiring that all inventoried media be close-captioned and all new procurements meet accessibility guidelines. 

 

In March 1996, the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) notified the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office that it was embarking on a statewide compliance effort.

 

The effort focused on the performance of colleges in meeting their obligation to provide all students with comparable access to distance education, regardless of student disability.

 

Several far-reaching pieces of state and federal legislation form the guiding framework for accessibility compliance in a distance education setting.

 

This body of law applies to the California Community Colleges, and it includes real-time captioning of courses delivered live to students at a distance (http://www.ccclivecaption.com/compliance.htm) 

 

Project Scope
The purpose of this planning effort is to facilitate the development of media accessibility ranging from VHS and DVDs to distance education broadcasts and teleconferencing.  The DRC is searching for assistance in bringing Porterville College into compliance with legislation that requires video media and communication through broadcasts to be closed-captioned.  Ideally the provider will be responsible for post caption production for over 600 videos in library inventory.  Instructors who use their personal videos must also participate in post production captioning, by either surrendering their videos to the library, or no longer showing their film in the classroom.  Distance education courses are also presently being offered, whereby students attend a course at the Bakersfield or Cerro Coso location that is taught from Porterville College.  All distance education courses must have closed-captioning to be in compliance with state and federal laws.

Plan Goals

  • Develop new policies for providing comparable access to educational media, regardless of student disability.   
  • Facilitate the procurement of new media restricted to accessible formats. All future media purchases must follow accessibility guidelines.
  • Promote universal design.
  • Provide post production closed-captioning for over 600 videos on inventory.

Scope of Consultant Services

  • Implement policies and procedures for Section 508 compliant procurements of media material.
  • Establish a Master Plan for Porterville College faculty to follow when utilizing various media formats, to insure accessibility.
  • Provide post-production closed captions for all media on inventory in the Library Media Services.  Produce captions for faculty videos that have been surrendered to the Library Media Services.  Provide captioning services for all distance education, broadcasts, and teleconferences.

Proposal Submission
One original and ten copies of the proposal shall be submitted to:

Porterville College
Disability Resource Center
100 E College Avenue
Porterville, CA  93257

by 4:00 p.m. PST. Tuesday, October 4, 2005. Upon receipt, the Program Coordinator shall time stamp the proposal. Proposals not timely received in the DRC’s office shall not be considered and shall be returned unopened.

Additional Information
Questions concerning the project should be directed to Carrie Stinson, Special Services Technician, Disability Resource Center, Porterville College, 100 E. College Ave, Porterville, CA 93257, 559-791-2389 or cstinson@pc.cc.ca.us.