SignDNA is the home of Aotearoa New Zealand’s visual Deaf history.

New Zealand Sign Language must be given official recognition as a language or it will die, Deaf Association President Jennifer Brain says.

It takes only a few minutes in the company of Pat Dugdale to realise that she has a mischievous sense of fun. It’s almost as if she enjoys shocking people and then watching their reaction.

Friday marks 30 years since the opening of the country’s first marae for Deaf and hard of hearing Māori. Since 1992, Rūaumoko Marae, in West Auckland’s Kelston, has been a place where Deaf students can learn about te ao Māori.

Barry Kay just wanted to order dinner for his kids at Burger King. The Christchurch builder had written his order in big letters on a piece of paper for the drive-through, as he had done before. But when he handed over his order at the window on Friday, the operator told him to go inside.

In spite of wet weather, there was a large attendance of Catholic clergy and public at the blessing and opening of St. Dominic's School for the Deaf and Dumb, at Dover Street, Island Bay, yesterday afternoon. This school, conducted by the Sisters of St. Dominic, is the first Catholic School for the education of deaf-mutes to be established in New Zealand.

Auckland University's fire drill on Monday left a deaf student feeling forgotten, but could be an opportunity for change, advocates say. Profoundly deaf psychology student Dean Buckley, 21, didn't know about the evacuation until he saw a fire warden yelling at him, minutes after everyone else in his building had fled outside.

The New Zealand indoor basketball team at the Deaf Olympics in Washington recently did not win a game. Yet to Napier's Forman brothers, Mervyn and Ray, the experience was one never to be forgotten.

Qualified interpreters are desperately needed to cope with the needs of deaf people in New Zealand.

The Auckland Deaf Society has reversed a previous decision and decided to support the team being sent to the Olympic Games for deaf people in Helsinki in August by the Wellington Deaf Sports Club.