Celebrating New Zealand Sign Language Week and working toward an accessible future

Sunday, 5 May 2019

When Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told the world 50 people were fatally shot, after a gunman opened fire on two mosques, New Zealand's Deaf community heard her.

That's because Alan Wendt was standing beside her.

The New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) senior interpreter at Deaf Aotearoa was using his hands to speak her words.

The day New Zealand announced it would ban semiautomatic weapons, assault rifles and high-capacity magazines a week after the events, the news was again shared in NZSL – Aotearoa's third official language which is being celebrated this week for NZSL Week.

**READ MORE:

* PM Jacinda Ardern launches video campaign for NZ Sign Language Week**

***** New Zealand's two deaf education centres to merge

* Marae visit highlights challenges the deaf face in connecting with Māori culture

* Report reveals uncertainty of future of deaf education****

For Deaf Aotearoa's executive assistant Erica Dawson access to political knowledge and information has 'opened a whole new world'.

It started in 2017 when a sign language version of the final debate between Jacinda Ardern and Bill English began.

For the first time the clash was aired  with a hand-to-hand battle between interpreters.

Signs for policy words needed to be created, and people within the deaf community helped ensure viewers were given the correct messages from Ardern and English.

Since then, Wendt has worked in the PM's office bringing the country's major news, first-hand, to about 4000 Kiwis who use NZSL as their first language.

Last year Ardern announced all post-cabinet press conferences would be interpreted into NZSL going forward.

That's meant for the first time in Dawson's almost 30-year life, she has been able to follow politics.

Now the flood gates are open, she wants to know about it all – keeping up with the country's biggest issues, she has a thirst for it right down to policy-making and processes.

It 'opened my mind' when Wendt began interpreting post-cabinet meetings and the political news of the day, she says.

'Before that, I was not interested in politics at all because I couldn't access it.'

Reading is not the same, because NZSL is not a translation of English words, she explains. So English is the second language of people who rely on sign language.

It has its own grammar, vocabulary, and syntax. While te reo Māori does not have its own sign language words have been adopted to explain certain things, like marae.

The gap in accessibility often meant complex information such as reports and political debates were too difficult to understand in a written format, just as it would in any other second language.

If a topic has no information in NZSL chances were the Deaf community wouldn't know it's happening, she says.

Now, every week she sits down and catches up on the week's political agenda in sign language.

'[Interpreted content] helps me be informed about issues. I get so excited about watching it.'

Today is the second time Ardern has released a video encouraging Kiwi business leaders and the hearing majority to support deaf people this New Zealand Sign Language Week, and to challenge unconscious bias in the workplace.

Last year, it sparked a flurry of pride and excitement among the world's estimated 70 million strong Deaf community.

It ignited a competitive streak among hearing-impaired communities in Canada and Britain who lobbied their Prime Ministers to follow Ardern's gesture.

For Aotearoa's Deaf it said much more: 'We're here. We want to talk and to share the language that is so unique to New Zealand,' Dawson says.

Growing up Deaf

Born in Wellington, Dawson grew up in a bilingual family but NZSL is her first language, and she was the only Deaf person in the family.

It's a similar story to about 90 per cent of New Zealand's deaf people.

But Dawson's parents were determined to open up the lines of communication and help her be proud of being deaf.

When her anthropologist mother found out Dawson couldn't hear, she went to NZSL night classes. Her father and brother both learnt as well.

They made sure her childhood was no different to anyone else's.

'So long as you can communicate, you don't feel like you're missing out on anything.'

But, she never really respected being a part of the Deaf community until she travelled to Sweden to join an international camp for Deaf children at 15-years-old.

'It strengthened my identity. I am really proud of my community, my culture.'

Being Deaf was 'who I am', she said.

Dawson said her family helped linked the hearing and deaf worlds. Now, with a hearing daughter of her own Dawson said she and her husband will do the same for her.

The dream, she said, was for New Zealand to have schools fluent in all three official languages – English, te reo Māori and NZSL. Equity and access is key to people's education but that's not a reality today, she says.

'I just want the best for my daughter.'

Merging two worlds

New Zealand's Deaf community live in a world that is mostly organised for hearing people.

There is a gap in major services and basic human rights such as education, justice and health.

'There are things we struggle with in life. They can be more difficult than they should be. It all comes down to accessibility,' Dawson says.

But we can improve. Listen to Deaf people, work together and start making plans for a multi-lingual country.

'There is always room for improvement. It's an exciting time, especially in the last few years. We now have access to areas like politics but there is so much more we can do.'

Corporal Debi Leahy is well-known in the Auckland deaf community as 'the signing Police Officer'. She hopes NZSL will one day be taught at Police Colleges to help give the Deaf community better access to the justice system.

In Budget 2018 the Government funded $30.2 million for Sensory Schools and NZ Sign Language over four years with Deaf Education Centres set to receive the biggest chunk – $20.88m. Deaf Aotearoa will receive just over $4.8m by 2021.

A statement from Education Minister Chris Hipkins' office said the money would help children and families access specialist teachers and professionals.

It would also be spent on employing up to 70 Deaf staff in Deaf Education Centres and provide students with workforce support, such as study awards through the Ministry of Education.

Hipkins announced last month Kelston Deaf Education Centre in Auckland and van Asch Deaf Education Centre in Christchurch would merge.

He said last week the move will allow the centres to become 'a national school'.

'I think it develops a centre of excellence and really gives them a platform to build from.'

But, New Zealand is still crying out for more people fluent in NZSL to get involved in our schools.

'By learning NZSL, hearing students are able to communicate with their deaf peers and participate in the deaf community. Skilled communicators may find career opportunities that involve working with deaf people,' NZ curriculum says.

'As deaf people come to have a wider circle to converse with, our society becomes more inclusive.'

Technology has also helped to make it easier for people to communicate through text and messaging services, video calls and social media.

From July 1, a video interpreting service that allows people using NZSL to phone others, using an interpreter, will be available on weekends.

It is the most demanded government-funded relay service but at the moment is only available from 8am-8pm on week days.

'Accessibility to housing, transport, information and communication allows disabled people to work, have a home, participate in their communities, get an education, use public transport and be informed,' Disability Issues Minister Carmel Sepuloni said at the launch of Leading the way in accessible information: a guide for state services in using inclusive language and design such as NZSL.

My language, my place

Inclusivity starts with trying Dawson says. 'Be open-minded. Learn. Say 'hello', 'thank you', 'nice to meet you' [in NZSL].

'When someone says 'thank you' to me, it puts a smile on my face. It's really positive to see people trying.'

The relatively small community has just as much diversity as any other, she said, whether people identify as Māori, Pasifika, or even LGBTI.

This year, New Zealand Sign Language Week will run from May 6 to 12 with an aim to raise awareness of the country's Deaf community which includes up to 4000 Kiwis who use NZSL as their first language and about 20,000 people – families, friends and the interpreters – who can sign.

This year's theme is: my language, my place.

It's a fitting theme for Dawson who said celebrating the country's unique language left a sense of pride.

Not only was the relatively small community watching awareness grow, and attitudes toward Deaf people change, but seeing the country's Prime Minister and political landscape include them, 'it gives us goosebumps'.

Deaf etiquette

1. Sign language is different in other countries. NZSL is unique to New Zealand and its Deaf community.

2. Hearing aids and cochlea can assistant a person's hearing but unlike wearing glasses it will not mean that person can hear perfectly.

3. While some Deaf people can speak others may not be able to or choose not to. For those who can, it can be physically exhausting.

4. Deaf is written with a capital letter when it refers to Deaf people who use NZSL to communicate.

5. Do not bring an interpreter into a conversation because this goes against the interpreter's code of ethical practice. It is also intensive work and requires regular breaks.

6. Just because something is written down doesn't mean Deaf people can understand it.

7. NZSL has not been made from English. It is its own language with its own structure and grammar.

8. Te reo Māori does not have its own sign language but words have been adopted to explain certain concepts such as marae. Māori Deaf people have developed and continue to develop signs to express concepts relating to Māori culture in New Zealand.

9. In the home, telephones, doorbells and baby alarms may have a flashing light instead of a ring tone or sound and alarm clocks may use vibrations. Deaf people may avoid places where flickering or flashing lights because they can find visual noise distracting.

10. There are some multi-generational Deaf families but just 10 per cent of Deaf children have Deaf parents.