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New Government policy on educating disabled children has ended more than three decades of teaching deaf children at St Dominic's in Feilding.

Margaret is one of some 21 kiddies, aged from five to seven years, who for the most part born deaf, are receiving special instruction at St. Dominic's School for the Deaf at Island Bay, Wellington, the first Catholic institution of its kind to be established in the Dominion.

This week is Deaf Awareness Week. Nelson Mail reporter interviewed two women from Nelson's deaf community this week: Fliss Maera and Susan Thomas. The Nelson Club has between 25 to 30 members.

Teaching for almost 50 years has proved a rewarding career for Terry O'Brien, who has witnessed the development of deaf education. He has seen the transition of deaf education from an emphasis on teaching verbally and through text, to an emphasis on Signed English then NZSL in the 90s.

Northland sign language tutor Eddie Hokianga has taken up the task of ensuring the region's deaf Māori community is heard. Hokianga (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Porou) has spent the last three years teaching te reo sign language to help fill a national void of interpreters fluent in the discourse.

Whakatane teacher Ruth Gerzon looks at some of the problems facing the deaf, in particular the controversy on how they should be taught.