ASLI
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ASLI provides communication services.
We work primarily in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. With roots in New York City and Maryland, ASLI provides on-site sign language interpreting services, video remote sign language interpreting (VRI) Communication Access Real-time Transcription (CART), foreign language interpreting, and note-taking services.
Clients use us because we make ordering services and billing simple. Consumers appreciate that we are successful at match their needs to the provider’s abilities. And providers love us because we reduce the risk of being a sole proprietor.
ASLI
212 477-0775 Voice/TTY
212 475-7677 Fax
office@asli.com
NJAD response
February 7th, 2014 by David in Uncategorized
Earlier this week, I was asked by a board member of NJRID to respond to this video by NJAD president, Michele Cline.
This was my response:
Her description of the contract is accurate and the Deaf community’s concerns are understandable. ASLI shares the same concerns.
In short, there are good agencies and bad agencies. Hopefully, the evaluation committee chooses good agencies over bad, even if their price is higher.
I can tell you about our agency’s perspective. By bidding on this contract, we are looking to administer it to the satisfaction of the Deaf community, the interpreting community, and the state. If there is an interpreter that a Deaf consumer prefers, wonderful, that actually makes our job easier.
From my experience bidding on eight RFPs in the past three years, I can tell you only an agency of a certain size will win. Applicants need a business license, financial statements, and experience in administering similar sized contracts. Individual interpreters, coalitions of interpreters, and small agencies are not going to be considered. This does not mean that local interpreters will lose work since there are only a limited number of certified interpreters in any area and a smart and ethical agency will try for “business as usual” for interpreters.
Deaf/Blind interpreting is actually not covered under this RFP. It can be offered as an optional service, but the winning agency does not need to provide tactile interpreters. Presumably, state agencies would continue to order those services as they have been.
The essential question of NJAD seems to be, how can they increase the chances that their needs are met, especially around requesting preferred interpreters and giving feedback about agency performance?
After February 28th, when bid are due, a group of people, the evaluation committee, will sit down with a pile of proposals and start reading them. They will score them based on a few “technical” fac