Pat Dugdale

In the past 18 months, the NZAD has opened field offices in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, and hopes soon to establish two more in Nelson and Dunedin.

There is still much lack of understanding among the general public about the needs of deaf people, says Pat Dugdale, field officer in Wellington for the New Zealand Association of the Deaf.

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

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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.