Pat Dugdale

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.

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.

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.

Deaf people have had unfair trials through lack of interpreters telling them what is happening in courts.

The new field officer for the deaf, Pat says “…deaf people are not morons.”

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.

Wellington has a new worker among the deaf. Pat Dugdale, profoundly deaf, has been made field officer by the New Zealand Association of the Deaf. Her job is to provide personal social service help and to liaise with organisations, welfare agencies, commercial institutions and lawyers on behalf of the deaf.

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.