Reporter Ole Maiava, from the educational TV series ‘Spot On’, visits a Deaf basketball training session to see how the sport is played by Deaf athletes, and controlled by a Deaf referee.
Ole catches up with Royce Flynn and Megan Mansfield about their experiences in Deaf sports – as a referee, and as an interpreter, as well as with Carol on her experiences being hearing and refereeing Deaf basketball games.
The teams are training for the upcoming World Games for the Deaf, in January 1989, which will be hosted in Christchurch.
Royce shares that the 45 teams coming in from overseas for the World Games for the Deaf are each bringing their own interpreters who will be using their native sign languages. Royce shares his hopes for having more interpreters in New Zealand, as the numbers are still too low. Megan adds that to counter this, they are training some people to become ‘interpreters’ for the duration of the Games in Christchurch.
