Deaf essential workers celebrated in sign-language week

This year’s New Zealand Sign Language Week showcased hard-of-hearing employees who worked throughout the pandemic.

Deaf Aotearoa organises NZSL Week every year and uses the week to raise awareness of the language and culture of the Deaf community.

Chief executive of the National Foundation for Deaf, Natasha Gallardo, says the theme could not have come at a more crucial time, with deaf essential workers needing support more than ever.

“Hard-of-hearing essential workers throughout the pandemic have struggled with mask-wearing and social distancing, as vital visual cues and lip-reading have been replaced by masks, which have made it difficult to communicate and follow conversations.”

Since 2007, the annual event continues to celebrate the deaf community and the 24,000 New Zealanders that use sign language for daily communication.

Ko Taku Reo, New Zealand’s provider of education services for hard-of-hearing children, has been showing its support for NZSL Week on Instagram.

Executive principal James Le Marquand shared here why NZSL is essential.

The deaf strategic lead for the school, Amanda Everitt, says NZSL is the most powerful tool the deaf community has.

“Sign language allows deaf people to be strong, share their resilience, and how they’ve succeeded.”

Everitt says that NZSL Week helps bring awareness to a language that is not recognised enough in our country.

“Ninety-five per cent of deaf children are born to hearing parents who don’t know NZSL, and they don’t have that opportunity to learn it from a young age, so it’s so important for children and their families to get together with people who know how to sign.”

Danni Mulrennan, a researcher on deaf television, says that the hard-of-hearing community needs to be included in the conversation around the pandemic.

“It is pivotal for deaf people to get access to what they need to know about what's going on in the world.

"Essential workers are challenged enough by the conditions around covid, and the rapid moving of information given by the Government needs to be communicated to all groups of people.”

Mulrennan has a strong connection to the Deaf community, as a parent of a child who is hard of hearing.

“Essential workers that use sign language need all the support they can get. It’s great that they are being celebrated this year because they are critical to the ongoing success of the deaf community.”