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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.

Mihiarangi Marsters is living proof smoke alarms save lives. The 71-year-old great-great-grandmother escaped as flames engulfed the kitchen of her Tikipunga home. Deaf since the age of 7, it was the special flashing smoke alarm that woke her and allowed her to grab her 4-year-old great- granddaughter and flee before it was too late.

The Minister of Broadcasting was getting in some last-minute swot on sign language, in preparation for a speech tonight to an audience made up mainly of deaf people.

Anthony and Christine Walton, both deaf, are recipients of one of the first phonotypes to be installed in the Wellington area.

Deaf people are angered and disappointed by the threat facing the TV show News Review.

Managing editor Professor Graeme Kennedy said the project had developed the most advanced computer database in the world for analysing and recording sign language.

A trip to the United States in 1990 gave Whangārei man Kim Robinson extra motivation to seek better and equal access for the deaf community in New Zealand. Now, that commitment to ensuring deaf people are heard and their needs met has seen him made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to the deaf community in the New Year's Honours List.

A shortage of sign language interpreters means as many as 7700 deaf people are struggling to access services in their communities.

Mrs Lilian Walton of Kilbirnie is the proud owner of a new machine which enables deaf people to talk on the phone. For Mrs Walton, the teleprinter means she can "talk" to her deaf son and his deaf wife.

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.

For the first time in their lives, Pam and Kay, who are profoundly deaf, can talk to each other by telephone. The Combined Societies for the Deaf is hoping to get telephone-type equipment in airports, police stations, taxi offices and emergency service switchboards.

A revolutionary device which opens up a whole new world for those born deaf is now being demonstrated in Wellington. New Zealand is the only second country in the world to adopt the system so far.

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.

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

Television New Zealand has begun experimental transmission aimed at introducing a new service which will improve viewing enjoyment for the hard of hearing. Called Teletext, it is intended for daily transmission by next year.

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

A Northland advocate is behind a campaign to get deaf-friendly fire alarms installed in public buildings, after a deaf university student was left behind during a drill. Whangarei's Kim Robinson, chairman of Deaf Action New Zealand, is driving the petition to make visual fire alarms - similar to what many deaf people have in their homes - mandatory in public buildings.

An interview with Abbie Twiss on World Deaf Awareness Day, and the start of New Zealand's National Deaf Awareness Week. Here, Abbie looks out from her Elam studio. "My thoughts go much faster than I can write." 

Auckland University's fire drill on Monday left a deaf student feeling forgotten, but could be an opportunity for change, advocates say. Profoundly deaf psychology student Dean Buckley, 21, didn't know about the evacuation until he saw a fire warden yelling at him, minutes after everyone else in his building had fled outside.