Pat Dugdale

Local bodies in the Wellington region are still inconsistent about the reductions they offer in dog registration fees for deaf owners, says the New Zealand Association of the Deaf.

Profoundly deaf people, particularly those deaf from birth of an early age, have needs which are not being met by the existing psychiatric services and institutions, says Pat Dugdale, Field Officer for the New Zealand Association of the Deaf.

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 field officer for the deaf, Mr David Chilwell, a former president of the Christchurch Deaf Club, has been appointed in Christchurch as a result of a grant from the Lottery Funds Board.

The deaf defendant in the aborted Wanganui murder trial has no legal right to an interpreter, through the Justice Department says it is providing one.

Wellington Deaf Society secretary, Pat Dugdale, is expecting 200 people from around New Zealand to take part in its 50th anniversary celebrations.

Nearly quarter of a million dollars in sponsorship has been raised for the NZSL dictionary, a joint effort by the University and the New Zealand Association of the Deaf.

One of the New Zealand Association for the Deaf’s priorities is to get interpreters for the profoundly deaf. This was the message in a speech from Mrs Pat Dugdale.

Managing editor Professor Graeme Kennedy said the project had developed the most advanced computer database in the world for analysing and recording sign language.

A fight has begun against a justice system which some deaf people regard as denying them basic human rights.

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.