Thread Subject: Re: 7.2-A - Support Services

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From: Jim Tobias
Date: Tue, Oct 23 2007 7:30 AM

I agree with Whitney, and I think Robert does too. The point is that the
vendor must collect and prepare the dissemination of all the info on AT
settings and workarounds, as this will be revealed to them in their testing.
But how the information actually reaches the user is subject to the
environment and the contract. In some cases, the agency delivers its own
technical support; in some cases it's part of the vendor's contractual
obligation. We should make no determination as to which of those is better.
But it should be clear from our wording that only the E&IT/mainstream vendor
is the right party to collect and prepare that info. The AT vendor cannot
do it -- is not a prty to the procurement, does not have the resources to
test against all mainstream products. The agency does not yet have the
product to do its own testing, except for those instances where pre-testing
is part of the procurement. Leave it up to the negotiating parties, but
make it clear what knid of info must be rendered to the end user.


***
Jim Tobias
Inclusive Technologies
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+1.908.907.2387 mobile
skype jimtobias




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From: Whitney Quesenbery [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ]
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 10:14 AM
To: TEITAC Committee
Subject: Re: [teitac-committee] 7.2-A - Support Services


Robert,

Then how do users get support that enables them to actually make use of the
product, with the AT that enables their access?

Neither wording of the provision dictates anything about how the support
services are organized...just that somewhere, someone should know how to
make the whole thing work.

This all reminds me of the days when you couldn't get your ISP and your
phone service to work together, and each support desk simply insisted that
it wasn't their problem, so it must be the other guy. If is doesn't come
together at the vendors, surely it has to at the agency.

I think the point of this provision is to say that it's not enough to just
have the two pieces - they have to fit together.

Whitney

At 06:08 AM 10/23/2007, Baker, Robert C. wrote:




Marliana raises an excellent point. In this wording, Help Desk Services
appear to be product specific. In agencies where AT distribution in the
environment is centrally managed & controlled, it is unlikely that product
specific help desk services could render this type of support.

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