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

The new Wellington field office is playing its part in other developments of interest to deaf people, such as the spread of total communication and the growing importance of the Wellington Deaf Society.

A trip to the United States in 1990 gave Whangārei man Kim Robinson extra motivation to seek better and equal access for the deaf community in New Zealand. Now, that commitment to ensuring deaf people are heard and their needs met has seen him made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to the deaf community in the New Year's Honours List.

The Minister of Broadcasting was getting in some last-minute swot on sign language, in preparation for a speech tonight to an audience made up mainly of deaf people.

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

Deaf people gatherered near the front of the papal Mass as interpreter Rachel Locker translated for them. She said it was one of the hardest job she had done because of the religious language.

Three first-year pupils and three sets of twins numbered among the 250 or so former pupils, teachers, family and friends who attended the St Dominics School for the Deaf 50th jubilee over Anzac Weekend.

New Zealand's first gold medal was won yesterday by a Fielding cyclist, John Ooteman. Aged 28, Ooteman won the 35km time trial event on the Old West Coast Road ahead of 23 other competitors with a time of 51 min 12.13s.

A course to train professional interpreters for the deaf, now being run in Auckland, is the first of its kind in New Zealand.