VA-701-12-I-0011 Sources Sought Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Health Information BOPS 12-40 VHA Section 508 Office Training Program 1. INTRODUCTION: This Sources Sought notice is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA is currently conducting market research to locate qualified, experienced, and interested potential sources. Responses will not be considered as proposals, nor will any award be incurred by interested parties in responding to this sources sought announcement. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is seeking interested sources (contractors) for a near-future solicitation and procurement for the Office of Health Information (OHI). At this time, no solicitation exists. Therefore, DO NOT REQUEST A COPY OF THE SOLICITATION. 2. BACKGROUND: The VHA Section 508 Office's primary mission is to test e-learning courses for Section 508 compliance before they are placed on the TMS. The 508 program has yielded impressive gains in operational efficiency and compliance performance over the last 20 months. These gains, however, are constrained by the lack of Section 508 knowledge and experience among the dynamically changing workforce. There is still much to be done to continue this trend, and the key is to increase training in this very complex and often misunderstood field of accessibility and Section 508. Such Section 508 training initiatives requires expansion of program resources to create a designated training branch. 3. OBJECTIVES: The Office of 508 Compliance, within the VHA Office of Health Information (OHI) is seeking for services to develop, implement, and maintain a VHA 508 Office training program for members of the workforce that have key roles in the procurement, management, development, and dissemination of accessible products and services. Ability to gather relevant material and seamlessly integrate that information into the existing courses will be required. In-depth understanding of the provisions of section 508, advanced technical expertise in identifying and explaining Section 508 violation and advanced technical expertise in providing detailed, step-by-step solutions to these violations will be required. In-depth knowledge of the use of a variety of screen readers, screen magnification software products, voice input software and any other assistive technologies which are identified as necessary to thoroughly address Section 508-related violations and to provide step-by-step solutions will be required. The ability to create accessible Flash and knowledge of the ability to create accessible documents using Adobe Professional, Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010 (particularly, but not limited to, PowerPoint, Word and Excel) are essential. The Section 508 standards established by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) are incorporated into and made part of all VA contracts, solicitations and purchase orders developed to procure Electronic and Information Technology (EIT). These standards are found in their entirety at http://www.section508.gov A printed copy of the standards will be supplied upon request. The contractor shall comply with the technical standards at 36 CFR 1194.22 Web-based Intranet and Internet Information and Applications, 1194.24 Video and Multimedia products and 1194.31 Functional. 4. SUBMITTAL INFORMATION: Contractors having the skills and capabilities necessary to perform the stated requirements should submit a response of no more than 15 pages in length, single spaced, 12 point font minimum. The Government will not review any other data, attachments that are in excess to the 15 pages. Companies should provide clear and unambiguous evidence to substantiate their capability to fulfill these requirements. Interested parties shall furnish the following minimum information: 1. Company name and address 2. Company point of contact name, telephone number and email address 3. Company business size and status (i.e., Large Business, Small Business, Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, Women-Owned Small Business, etc.), the number of years in business, affiliate information: parent company, joint venture partners, potential teaming partners 4. If the company holds a Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) Contract, list the GSA Contract Number and relevant SINS 5. Capabilities/Qualifications: A written response providing clear and unambiguous evidence to substantiate the capacity to fulfill this requirement. Description of the capabilities/qualifications/skills your company possesses to perform services described in the scope of work. 6. Past Experience: Brief summary of the company history relative to similar requirements. Offer may provide the following information on a maximum of three similar projects for which the responder was a prime or subcontractor. 1. The name, address, and value of each project 2. The Prime Contract Type, Firm Fixed-Price, or Time and Material 3. The name, telephone and address of the owner of each project 4. A description of each project and why it is relevant to this requirement. Include difficulties and successes 5. Your company's role and services provided for each project. It is requested that the above information be provided no later than November 3, 2011 at 1:00PM EST. Responses should be emailed Andrea Fink at
contact@example.gov. All Email Correspondence for this project must reference the RFI Number, Project Identifier and Project Title in the subject line of the
