CHANCELLOR’S OFFICE
CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGES
STUDENT SERVICES DIVISION
PART ONE OF A TWO-PART
REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS (RFA)
RFA# RFA 13-0288
SOLICITATION OF INTEREST
for
High Tech Center Training Unit (HTCTU)
PART ONE: SOLICITATION OF INTEREST
The purpose is to determine which districts are interested in participating in a
competitive application process (i.e., RFA 13-0288) for a multi-year grant award
of approximately $1,000,000 per year to serve as High Tech Center Training Unit.
The final grant award dollar amount will be approved by the Board of Governors
at a later date. Letters of Interest are due by 5:00 p.m., Monday January 14,
2013. If the Chancellor’s Office does not receive more than one qualified
applicant under Part One of this Request for Applications (RFA), it reserves the
right to award the contract to the single qualified applicant. Applicants must
demonstrate experience sufficient to manage grants or contracts with a State of
California agency.
PART TWO: ACTUAL RFA PROCESS
If more than one district submits a signed Solicitation of Interest letter by the
deadline established above, the Chancellor’s Office will conduct a standard
competitive process for the award of the above-noted grant. The participants in
this process will be limited to the community college districts that respond in the
requested manner to Part One. A full RFA packet, including instructions, forms
and a deadline to submit would be sent only to the responding districts, at a later
date.
Project Duration
The grant, which would be awarded upon completion of the RFA process and
executed prior to July 1, 2013, will be awarded for up to a five-year period. The
grant is renewable, based on satisfactory performance and the availability of
funds, each year for up to four additional years after the initial grant year.
The grant recipient will be required to complete quarterly progress reports during
each year and an annual final report in a format specified by the Chancellor’s
Office. Additional reports and data must be provided, when requested by the
Chancellor’s Office, for monitoring and planning purposes. Unless otherwise
directed by the Board of Governors, the grant will be competitively bid among the
districts during the final year of this multiple-year award. It is expected that
subsequent grant awards will be for up to five years.
Purposes/Uses of the Funds
The Chancellor’s Office of the California Community Colleges is requesting
applications from community college districts to act as the High Tech Center
Training Unit (HTCTU) for the California Community Colleges System. The
HTCTU will be a resource for the entire system, particularly DSPS faculty/staff in
three primary areas: (1) Assistive and Instructional Computer Technologies; (2)
Alternate Media Technologies; (3) Web Accessibility Technologies. The HTCTU
will be required to provide training in various areas and in various modes and
methods of delivery. The HTCTU will also provide general technical assistance
and support in these three key areas via: telephone, teleconference, webinar, Email, and in person. The HTCTU will test and evaluate new and emerging
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technologies, disseminate the information throughout the California Community
College system, and coordinate with other statewide projects, under the direction
of the Chancellor’s Office.
Project Background
Access to computers and technology is a critical factor in the successful
completion of post-secondary education. The Chancellor’s Office, in cooperation
with the California State Department of Rehabilitation, recognized the need for
students with disabilities to have better access to computers. In 1989, the
Chancellor’s Office developed a grant to address this need. The intent of the grant
was to provide students with disabilities training in, and access to, assistive
computer technology that would allow them to compete effectively in both the
academic and workplace environments. Through a series of grants, a network of
High Tech Centers for students with disabilities was established.
The grant also established the HTCTU. In 1990, the Chancellor’s Office
requested proposals for relocating the HTCTU from its location in Sacramento,
California to a host community college district. The Chancellor’s Office awarded
the grant, based on a competitive bidding process, to the Foothill-De Anza
Community College District. The HTCTU was relocated to De Anza College. The
role of the HTCTU was expanded during fiscal year 2000-2001 to provide
technical assistance and training in alternate media and web accessibility. The
HTCTU was re-awarded to Foothill-DeAnza in 2008 for a 5-year award, which
expires on June 30, 2013.
With the approval of the Chancellor’s Office and with the advice and support of
its advisory committee and others, HTCTU’s services and resources to the field
have expanded in the last grant cycle to include support to Veteran’s Resource
Centers, the dissemination of new utilities such as HiSoftware Compliance
Sherriff, training in SharePoint accessibility, trainings on Section 508 procurement
and compliance, and other new and emerging areas of need.
Need
The Chancellor’s Office Management Information System (MIS) data indicates
that there were 121,427 students with disabilities receiving services through the
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Disabled Students Programs and Services (DSPS) within the California
Community Colleges during the 2011-12 academic / reporting year. There still
exists a significant need for both local and centralized resources to support
assistive and instructional computer technologies, alternate media, and web
accessibility for the California Community College system.
Provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Sections 504 and
508 of the Rehabilitation Act require that the California Community Colleges
provide effective, accessible, and timely program accommodations to students
with disabilities. The continued support of a centralized, statewide High Tech
Center Training Unit will assist the Chancellor’s Office and the California
Community College system in meeting their obligation to provide students with
disabilities access to print and electronic-based information.
The Chancellor’s Office recognizes the need for system wide coordination in the
delivery of technical assistance and instruction for faculty/staff so that they are
adept in serving students with disabilities. While the HTCTU primarily focuses
on supporting DSPS faculty/staff, as appropriate and as resources allow, training
and technical assistance for other college faculty/staff on access issues may be
approved within these grant funded activities as well.
Grant applicants must demonstrate that they have an effective plan to design and
implement a comprehensive program to provide technical assistance and training
to California community college faculty/staff on a statewide basis. The grantee
must be located within a 50-mile radius of a major airport, to ensure that those
wishing to attend trainings offered physically at the center, can do so.
Objectives
The grantee will meet the following objectives:
1. Provide for the fully accessible facilities that allow for the effective delivery
of training and services for college staff, faculty and Chancellor’s Office
representatives who serve students with disabilities.
2. Develop, implement and maintain a state-of-the-art, technologically
sophisticated High Tech Center Training Unit, as per this RFA.
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3. Develop and implement a consistent method of transmitting information on
the availability of technical support and training for faculty/staff through
advisory committees, webinars, conference presentations, cooperative
agreements, partnerships within the system, website postings, listserves,
marketing materials, etc.
4. Provide technical assistance in the areas of assistive and instructional
technologies, alternate media technologies, and web accessibility
technologies to individual community college sites, statewide advisory
committees, the Chancellor’s Office and Chancellor’s Office supported
statewide projects.
5. Create and maintain an accessible web site that provides effective technical
assistance, services and information on a system-wide basis to community
college districts/colleges/sites.
6. Engage in research and evaluation of new and emerging technologies,
including assistive and instructional technologies, alternate media
technologies, and web accessibility technologies and then provide training
on those technologies to California Community Colleges, as needed.
7. Provide trainings in Section 508 and Section 11135 compliance.
8. Advise the Chancellor’s Office in the area of assistive technology, web
accessibility and alternate media and participate on collaborative projects
supported by the Chancellor’s Office.
Activities:
To meet the objectives listed above, the following activities, at a minimum, will be
performed:
1.
Campus and Program Infrastructure and Staffing
The designated grant recipient will be responsible for providing an appropriate site
at which the High Tech Center Training Unit can provide statewide training and
support services for each community college’s DSPS program.
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2.
Technological Infrastructure
The host site must have an office system (copiers, equipment racks, integrated
workstations) and technological infrastructure (routers, hubs, servers, computers,
and scanners, video projection systems) to support the program operations.
Information should be provided to support that the site has developed a periodic
replacement schedule for equipment that is consistent with technological
innovations occurring within the information technology and assistive technology
community.
3.
Collaboration and Partnerships
The Grantee must establish ongoing collaborative relationships with other public
and private entities. Towards this end, the HTCTU must communicate regularly
with California Community College faculty/staff, the Chancellor’s Office,
Alternate Media Specialists, Web Accessibility Specialists, and High Tech Center
Specialists.
4.
Technical Assistance and Training
The HTCTU must provide technical assistance and information to Alternate Media
Specialists, Learning Disabilities Specialists, Information Technology staff, DSPS
administrators and other staff at the colleges, faculty members, Chancellor’s
Office staff and others as deemed necessary. The HTCTU must develop and
maintain a series of regularly offered trainings that provide faculty/staff from
California community colleges with the information needed for the success of
students with disabilities. In order to accomplish this task, the host site must be
able to satisfy each of the criteria listed below.

The HTCTU will regularly review and update trainings as needed.

The HTCTU will regularly create new trainings that reflect the needs of
California community colleges and the emergence of new technologies.

All training materials will be produced by the HTCTU in alternate formats
and will be readily available to ensure equal and effective access for
individuals with disabilities.
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
5.
The HTCTU will conduct an annual statewide needs assessment to determine
the needs, preferences, and priorities of college personnel relative to: training
topics, frequency and locations of workshops, medium of communications,
information and materials, and services and activities. The results from the
annual needs assessment will be a fundamental element in the development of
the annual training plan to be included in the grant renewal for the following
year.
Accessible Electronic Web Site
The HTCTU must maintain a fully accessible web site that facilitates
communication between and among various program and service areas within the
California Community Colleges system. That communication would be among
such program areas as learning disabilities specialists, captioning professionals,
alternate media specialists, Chancellor’s Office staff, DSPS program coordinators
and others.
6.
Research and Evaluation
The HTCTU is expected to work closely with product developers, advocacy
groups, and other organizations familiar with assistive computer technologies,
alternate media, captioning, and accessible web development to identify new and
emerging technologies of potential benefit to students with disabilities. It is the
responsibility of the High Tech Center Training Unit to regularly disseminate
information and develop trainings in order to keep California community colleges
apprised of new technologies of potential benefit to students with disabilities. The
HTCTU should develop collaborative working relationships with developers of
assistive computer technologies, alternate media systems, web accessibility
technologies and captioning systems.
Funding
Funding would begin on or after July 1, 2013.
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Certification of Intent to Participate
in a Competitive Application Process for the
for the California Community Colleges High Tech Center Training Unit
I hereby certify that the ____________________________________Community College District, in
support of _________________________________College as the proposed project administator,
intends to be an applicant in the competitive application process (i.e., Request for Application,
"RFA") to select a project administrator for the California Community Colleges High Tech Center
Training Unit. Contract responsibilities begin upon completion of the Request for Applications
(RFA) process and have an expected project duration of 5 years.
Information relevant to project host responsibilities is detailed on the preceding pages.
I understand that the RFA will be limited to the districts/colleges that certify this form with the
required signatures and return it to the Chancellor’s Office by no later than 5:00 PM on Monday,
January 14, 2013. I also understand that if only one qualified district/college submits this
certification, that entity may be awarded the grant without any further competitive process.
The following District and College staff members must sign this form:
______________________________________________
District/College Chief Executive Officer
____________
Date
_____________________________________________
District/College Chief Business Officer
____________
Date
District Contact:
Return this form to:
_________________________
Name
_________________________
Title
_________________________
E-mail address
_________________________
Phone Number
CCC Chancellor’s Office
Attn: Scott Berenson
DSPS Program Coordinator
1102 “Q” Street, Ste. 4554
Sacramento, CA 95811-6539
PH 916-322-3234
FAX 916-327-8232
This signed form must be received by the CCC Chancellor’s Office no later than 5:00pm
Monday, January 14, 2013.
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