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

Trevor Fear, Auckland's newly-appointed deaf welfare officer talks about his experiences, the deaf community and their needs.

One deaf teacher in south Auckland has inspired several toddlers and their parents to learn sign language.

Candice David was only 3 when she lost her hearing. Now, she's helping others learn her only form of communication, NZSL. Candice was at Palmerston North bar Brew Union on Sunday, offering free NZSL tutorials to all patrons.

Struggles in her own schooling as she grew up made profoundly deaf Auckland woman Sarah Cameron want to be a teacher. Her ambition came true yesterday when she became the first deaf person to graduate with a mainstream secondary teacher's diploma.

"There's still a lot of barriers for deaf people in this country," says Erica, who lost her hearing when she was six months old. "We face all sorts of challenges that hearing people take for granted, such as finding interpreters to help us with schoolwork or meetings at work."

Says Pam: “I think for me I live in two worlds and have two languages, the deaf language and the hearing language. I speak the deaf language because I was brought up with it.”

Turn the light on, so I can hear what you're saying. It's an old line, but a favourite one among us hearing-impaired people, because it points up how we "hear" with our eyes as surely as blind people "see" with their fingers or their ears.

Qualified interpreters are desperately needed to cope with the needs of deaf people in New Zealand.

A television documentary on the plight of a deaf man has spurred the Glen Eden-based New Zealand Association of the Deaf into action. It wants to see the man, wrongly imprisoned for two years, receive compensation for his ordeal.

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.

Threading a needle needs a straight eye with a steady hand, which 15-year-old Susan Ovens illustrated through mime at the closing function of Deaf Awareness Week on Sunday. The Deaf Awareness Week function was held in the Downtown complex in Auckland. The Governor General's speech was translated into sign language by the president of the New Zealand Association of the Deaf, Mr B.McHattie.