NZSL Board meeting summary - September 2019

Cabinet recently appointed Rhian Yates as Chair of the New Zealand Sign Language Board for a two year term.  At this meeting the Board elected Catherine Greenwood as the Deputy Chair until 30 June 2020.

The Board would like to acknowledge Brent Macpherson who was the Disabled Persons Organisation (DPO) rep on the Board but has recently stepped down from this position.

The Board meeting focussed on three main areas.  The Board have approved funding for a project to look at identifying interpreter compentencies as part of a bigger piece of work to develop interpreter standards.  Support for Māori and Pacific students enrolling into the Certificate in Deaf Studies at Victoria University of Wellington has been approved and will be provided through some scholarships.  Finally, Kara Technology presented about their project with Kelston Deaf Education Centre to create NZSL stories told using an Avatar.  This was a great opportunity to talk about the progress being made on this project.  The Board has adopted the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) statement on the Use of Signing Avatars which can be found here.

The Board would like to thank Kelston Deaf Education Centre for allow the Board to host a meeting in their Deaf Space.  It was nice to see and interact with the Deaf staff and children.