Minnesota Statutes Public Welfare and Related Activities (Ch. 245-267) § 256C.23. Definitions

Subdivision 1. Scope. For the purposes ofsections 256C.21to256C.30, the terms defined in this section shall have the meanings given them, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

Subd. 1a. Culturally affirmative. “Culturally affirmative” describes services that are designed and delivered within the context of the culture, identity, language, communication, and life experiences of persons who are deaf, persons who are deafblind, and persons who are hard-of-hearing.

Subd. 1b. Linguistically affirmative. “Linguistically affirmative” describes services that are designed and delivered within the context of the language and communication experiences of persons who are deaf, persons who are deafblind, and persons who are hard-of-hearing.

Subd. 2. Deaf. “Deaf” means a hearing loss where the person communicates primarily through American Sign Language or another signed language, signing systems in English, Cued Speech, reading and writing, speech reading, or other visual communication.

Subd. 2a. Hard-of-hearing. “Hard-of-hearing” means a hearing loss where the person does not communicate primarily through visual communication.

Subd. 2b. Deafblind. “Deafblind” means any combination of vision and hearing loss where the person uses visual, auditory, or tactile strategies and skills such as the use of a tactile form of a visual or spoken language to access communication, information from the environment, or other information.

Subd. 2c. Interpreting services. “Interpreting services” means services that include:

Subd. 3. Repealed byLaws 2017, 1st Sp., c. 6, art. 1, § 54(d), eff. July 1, 2017.

Subds. 4, 5. Deleted by amendment,Laws 1996, c. 392, § 1.

Subd. 6. Real-time captioning. “Real-time captioning” means a method of captioning in which captions are simultaneously prepared and displayed or transmitted at the time of origination by specially trained real-time captioners.

Subd. 7. Family and community intervener. “Family and community intervener” means a person who is specifically trained in deafblindness and works one-on-one with a child who is deafblind to provide critical access to language, communication, people, and the environment.