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Three years of lobbying for more support has finally borne fruit for the Taranaki deaf community. An office of the Deaf Association opened in New Plymouth this week, to provide needs assessment, information and some interpretation services for deaf people.

One local mariner, 66 year old, Laurence Schischka and his family, enjoy and succeed in sailing in total silence. Schischka, his wife Sylvia and their sons are oblivious to the creaking of the spars, the whir of winches, the thundering of wind billowing sails, even the sloshing of waves against the hull.

Cushla and Brian talk about their lives – being Deaf, their experiences at school, employment, and communication.

Kevin Stokes wishes more people spoke his language. He would also like to see it recognised, as New Zealand's third official language, alng with English and Maori.

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.

Van Asch College, as it will now be known, is no longer a school exclusively for the deaf.

If a New Zealand-born person doesn’t speak good English, people are likely to assume such a person is unintelligent. Such an assumption is wrong when the person is born deaf.

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

In the past 18 months, the NZAD has opened field offices in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, and hopes soon to establish two more in Nelson and Dunedin.

In Hamilton, there are four deaf units, three at Hamilton West and one at Melville Intermediate. Next year there is going to be a deaf unit at Melville High School.

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.

Applications are invited for the above position based in the Wellington Welfare Office for the Deaf. Interpreting work will include areas such as welfare, court, political meetings, medical, etc. Application giving full curriculum vitae and a VHS video tape of yourself of no less than 15 minutes presented in sign language.

The 600 people in Wellington at last have their own sign interpreter. Rachel Locker was appointed as sign language interpreter for the deaf on Monday.

Social Welfare Officer and organising secretary of The Friends of the Deaf in Auckland hopes to provide housing via several units to be known as the Eddowes Memorial Village.

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

On a recent Saturday, I was lucky enough to meet members of the Auckland Deaf Society at a working bee they were holding to improve the grounds of the city's Deaf Welfare Centre. The centre, incidentially, is a very fine building – it has the biggest sports hall in Auckland with a floor area 110 by 60 feet.

The class of eight graduates tonight after four months' study learning the variety of sign language used by New Zealand deaf people.

Weekly yoga exercises at the Deaf Welfare Centre in Balmoral, where the instructor knocks the floor so the class knows when the time has come to "breathe out".

When Miss Fay Fenton, who practices at Mt Roskill began teaching Hatha Yoga at the Mt Eden Deaf Welfare Centre, she had to find her own way of expression. Sign language and lipreading were no good when the audience was lying on its back starting at the ceiling, so I had to find some other way to pass on my instructions.