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Deaf and hearing-impaired Kiwis are about to get a lot more choice in what they watch on television thanks to closed captioning being introduced on 10 new channels.

Fifty deaf people registered a silent protest outside the Auckland Magistrate’s Court yesterday about what they say is the subtle discrimination of New Zealand against deaf people.

The producer of News Review explains the innovations and experimentations they have made in creating the programme, specially designed for the hard of hearing.

People who can hear as well as see 'Reasonable Doubts' (TV3, 9.50pm Saturdays) might be surprised to learn that Deaf New Zealanders can understand deaf lawyer Tessa Kaufman’s sign language little better than they can. ASL, used by Deaf actor Marlee Matlin, is a foreign language here. My Deaf friends give it the thumbs up. But the failure of television in New Zealand to provide anything in NZSL is described as “a running sore” by Hilary McCormack.

Teletext, TVNZ’s new information service for disabled and general users, will be introduced on February 1. It has cost about $1 million to set up and part of the money came from the 1981 Telethon.

For most of the week, the deaf in New Zealand are shut off from the television communication the rest of us take for granted. But for half an hour each Sunday, they can join the rest of the world, through a special programme called News Review.