General Reader

SEC Contract

Background

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires federal agencies to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified employees or applicants with disabilities, unless to do so would cause undue hardship. Accommodation is any change in the work environment or in the way things are customarily done that would enable an individual with a disability to enjoy equal employment opportunities.

Objectives

The primary objective of this requirement is to provide General Reader services to individuals with a disability for the purposes of participating in the Equal Employment Opportunity complaint process.

Scope

The scope of this contract is to provide assistance to participants in the EEO complaint process who have been determined by the SEC to meet the Rehabilitation Act definition of disability. It does not authorize personal services except as required by the Rehabilitation Act and approved by the SEC. It includes but is not limited to reader services.

General Reader Assistance Services

The contractor personnel shall be required to perform the following duties to enable participants to fully participate in the EEO complaint process:

• Reading may include reading text aloud to blind professional employees for sustained periods of time and/or recording audio files by reading printed records. Records will include any material related to the employee's participation in the EEO complaint process.
• All personnel shall be polite and maintain a professional demeanor while carrying out duties assisting employees.

· All assistants shall exercise good judgment and discretion. Assistants shall have excellent skills in the following areas: reading comprehension, writing, editing, organization, communication and interpersonal relations.

• Assistants shall be required to work under pressure to meet tight deadlines and manage multiple assignments involving changing priorities.
• Assistants shall not be required to provide personal assistance to employees with task not directly related to participation in the EEO complaint process.

General Qualifications for Personnel hired by the Contractor to provide "General Reader Assistance Services"

Personnel providing services under this task order must not have the same working relationship with the SEC employee. If a specific individual is normally assigned to a specific employee participating in the EEO process, a different individual must be assigned for the purposes of this task order.

All personnel hired by the Contractor to provide services shall possess the following educational qualifications: College graduate or substantial college coursework completed (preferably courses in English, Law, information technology, business, finance, securities, or other fields related to the mission of the SEC).

Work schedule: Work will be performed as needed during normal business hours. Upon notice of need, the Contractor shall work diligently to acquire additional support from an established pool of qualified personnel within twenty-four (24) hours. If the Contractor is unable to provide an ad hoc assistant, on-call personnel shall work to the best of their ability to meet the need.

Weekend Scheduled Work: The SEC may request services of assistants on weekends, or prior to 9:00 am or after 5:00 pm on workdays. The COR shall notify the Contractor in writing at least 48 hours in advance of requirements calling for work on weekends or work outside normal business hours.

It is desirable that personnel hired by the Contractor to provide services as Assistants have a general understanding and interest in working closely with professional employees with disabilities and an understanding of principles of disability etiquette appropriate to the employees, they may be assigned to provide assistance to.