Actress Miranda Harcourt will be the guest speaker at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Wellington Deaf Society, this week.
She became involved with the Deaf Society while she was rehearsing for her part in Children of a Lesser God. For Miranda, the year-long rehearsals meant learning sign language.
“Deaf people are a wonderful source of drama,” says Harcourt, who remains an active member of the society, as a tutor in drama.
The actress will speak in sign language at a dinner at the Plaza International Hotel as part of the Deaf Society celebrations. Other guests are the Governor General and his wife, Sir John and Lady Marshall, and the Mayor of Wellington, Jim Belich.
Wellington Deaf Society secretary, Mrs Pat Dugdale, is expecting 200 people from around New Zealand to take part in the celebrations.
The Wellington Deaf Society only has 82 members but has the potential for 200 or 300 members, explains Mrs Dugdale.
The clubrooms are sparse and up to 30 members do not participate because of the limited facilities.
Mrs Dugdale says membership would increase if they could offer better facilities.
Run from a small house in Willis Street, rented from the Ministry of Works for a minimal sum, the clubrooms are scheduled for demolition to make way for an extension of the motorway.
After the anniversary celebrations, the Society hopes to concentrate on raising funds to build their own clubrooms.
Mrs Dugdale says deaf people are often at a disadvantage because of poor communication skills and a low level of education. Consequently, they are passive about participating in the larger community. “It is important for deaf people to have a place of their own for recreational activities.”
She points out a “deafism” syndrome, in which deaf people lack awareness and initiative.
This could be overcome by an improvement in the standard of education schools, and by assertiveness training for deaf adults.
Last month a Society member went to Wellington Hospital twice before staff could understand and treat him. He was robbed and left unconscious outside the clubrooms on a Friday night. An ambulance took him to hospital but he was left untreated because of communication problems. He returned to the clubrooms and a friend accompanied him back to the hospital where he received 20 stitches for a head injury.
An interpreter from the Deaf Field Office, Freda Pearce, says the association call-out system should have been notified. The system provides contact phone numbers of interpreters which can be used any time of the day or night.
Mrs Pearce says the matter has been referred to the management committee.
She agrees self defence for the deaf would be helpful, especially for women, but time, money and communication was a problem. It would take a lot of organising and need an interpreter. Presently, the services of the Field Office for the deaf are thinly spread and their first priority is in providing a welfare service to deal with the day-to-day problems of deaf people.
Photo: Society member, Toni Rees, and her fours team won the 1988 indoor bowls national championships.
