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Twenty-three of the 39 residential care staff at van Asch College were made redundant yesterday as a result of Government funding cuts last year.

New Zealand Sign Language must be given official recognition as a language or it will die, Deaf Association President Jennifer Brain says.

The deaf Lynndale athlete is endeavouring to gain selection for the forth coming Deaf Olympics to be held in Yugoslavia in July.

After having the rug pulled from under them four years ago, the New Zealand deaf cricket team heads to India today for the World Cup.

Coventry was selected as a sole member of the New Zealand team to attend the July Deaf Olympics in Yugoslavia.

The New Zealand cricket team beat Australia at the Petone Recreation Ground. You would be forgiven for not knowing the match was on. Media coverage, or rather the lack of it, is a major problem for disabled sport.

Four New Zealand deaf athletes are favoured to win medals in swimming, cycling, and badminton. The 112-strong New Zealand team will compete in 11 of the 12 sports.

Deaf students have the right to equal access to tertiary education but who will pay for sign language interpreters?

When the 1400 competitors and officials arrive in Christchurch to take part in the World Games for the Deaf, TVNZ's news programme for the deaf will be ready and waiting. The small staff of the weekly programme "News Review" is being boosted by four journalists to cover the events of the three-week games in January.

When Alan Ovens yells at his sister Susie on the basketball court, she never listens. Quite simply, she can't. Susie Ovens is the captain of the New Zealand women's deaf basketball team.

The room is full of waving hands and exaggerated facial gestures. Even though the room is silent the dozen women are "talking" with each other just as volubly as if they were having a chinwag. It is a women's only class in New Zealand's latest offical language - NZSL.

Basketball referees Peter Murray and Peter Downie are quite used to being accused of being blind. This they ignore. Accusations of deafness are a different matter.

At the basketball, also at Cowles Stadium, the New Zealand women beat Australia, 91-65, to notch the host country's first win in the sport. New Zealand led 45-26 at half-time and is now in the running for the bronze medal.

Most of these taking part in the sports convention last weekend live in a silvent world constantly. Yet no observer could have mistaken the enjoyment the spectators at the badminton expressed in their conversation, using signs and movements of their arms, hands and lips.

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.

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.