New Mexico Administrative Code
Title 6 - PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
Chapter 29 - STANDARDS FOR EXCELLENCE
Part 18 - BRAILLE STANDARDS
Section 6.29.18.7 - DEFINITIONS

A. "Accessible formats" means alternative methods of communication that provide the same information in another form to address the barriers text-based materials can present for some learners. Examples of accessible formats include audio, braille, large print, tactile graphics, and digital text conforming with accessibility standards.

B. "Accessible tools" means tools that have been adapted to modify visual content or that have auditory or tactile markers or that include manipulatives, tactile graphics, and concrete models.

C. "Braille" means the tactile system of reading and writing used by persons who are blind and visually impaired, as defined by the braille authority of North America.

D. "Content standards" means standards of learning in all subject areas pursuant to 6.29.2 through 6.29.17 NMAC, "standards of excellence", including "Spanish language arts common core standards" and "world readiness standards for learning languages".

E. "Hand-under-hand" means a method of instruction in which the teacher's hand is under a child's hand to guide it toward an object to center the locus of control with the child.

F. "Nemeth code" means a system for reading and writing mathematical symbols based on the six-cell braille cell and developed by Dr. Abraham Nemeth.

G. "Part-to-whole processing" means learning and understanding by first noticing specific details and then putting these details together to understand what they comprise.

H. "Tactile" means materials, experiences, or environments designed to communicate through the sense of touch.

I. "Tactile graphics" means a way of conveying non-textual information using raised lines and surfaces and may include tactile representations of pictures, maps, graphs, diagrams, and other images.

J. "Tactual" means learning or a learner relying primarily on the sense of touch for mental representation in thought and learning, that is, acquiring, processing, and recalling information. Unlike visual processing, which affords either whole-to-part or part-to-whole approaches, tactual learners employ part-to-whole processing approaches.

K. "Teacher of students with visual impairments" or "TSVI" means an educator with the appropriate teaching license pursuant to 6.61.10 NMAC that authorizes the educator to teach students who are blind or visually impaired, birth through grade 12 as defined under the federal guidelines.