NZSL Act Review 2011

The NZSL Act said that three years after it was agreed, a review had to be done on how it was working and whether any changes were needed.

• Download the full NZSL Act Review Report (DOC 272 KB)
• Download the full NZSL Act Review Cabinet Paper (DOC 69 KB)

In January 2011, the Minister for Disability Issues made a video that called for Deaf people and others to have their say about the NZSL Act. Over the following three months, people and groups could send in their views by email, fax, post, or by sending a video in NZSL.

The Office for Disability Issues put out a guide with 12 questions on the NZSL Act to help Deaf people have their say in the review. We also asked Deaf Aotearoa to organise meetings around the country to help Deaf people take part.

There was good interest in the review:

• 18 community meetings were organised by Deaf Aotearoa, which involved over 177 Deaf people
• 41 written or video submissions were made, which include 11 from the community meetings.

The Office for Disability Issues looked at what everyone said and wrote a report for the Minister for Disability Issues. We suggested some actions that could be taken. The Minister took the report to other Government Ministers, and they agreed what should be done. The decisions by Ministers are written in what is called a Cabinet paper.

More people now know about NZSL

Most people said that more hearing people now know about NZSL.

Deaf people said that they feel more confident using NZSL and when asking for an interpreter.

As well as the NZSL Act, two other big things that helped this to happen were:

• Deaf Aotearoa’s annual NZSL awareness week
• the presence of a NZSL interpreter next to Bob Parker, the Mayor of Christchurch, when he was on TV during the earthquakes.

Government has not used NZSL as much as expected

Many Deaf people expected that the NZSL Act would have made government departments provide information in NZSL and that NZSL would be used in official events. Government departments have not used NZSL as much as Deaf people expected.

But use of NZSL is increasing. For example, in 2011, NZSL interpreters were present for the first time at the official Waitangi Day celebrations. The interpreter translated between Māori, English and NZSL.

Also, in September 2011, a NZSL explanation of the NZSL Act was released.

Accessing government services is not always easy

Some people said that government services, such as Work and Income, can be really good in one town at getting NZSL interpreters but in another town they are not so good. They said this is because some government staff do not know what is expected of them.

One of the problems government departments have is finding NZSL interpreters who are suitably qualified. There is a shortage of NZSL interpreters, and most of them live in Auckland or Wellington.

Some good examples of information in NZSL on services are:

• ACC
• Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management
• Electoral Commission
• Ministry of Social Development, including:
  • Work and Income
  • Child, Youth and Family
  • Office for Disability Issues
• Statistics New Zealand
• Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner
• Human Rights Commission.

Not many Deaf people have been in courts

Most people said that they did not have any, or enough, experience with courts to say whether using NZSL in courts was working for Deaf people.

Some people suggested that there needed to be more training of court staff. The Ministry of Justice said that its instructions on how NZSL interpreters should be provided in courts seem to be working well on the whole.

Recently, the Ministry of Justice has been looking at how courts work with all interpreters, including NZSL interpreters. Some changes are going to be made so that using interpreters works better. One change is that a complaints process will be introduced by October 2012. This means that if people are not happy with how NZSL interpreters are used in courts then they can make a complaint.

Other parts of the justice system have a mixed record

Deaf people should be able to access a NZSL interpreter at any time in a criminal justice setting, such as during a Police interview, in meetings before going to court, or when in prison. This is required by the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.

Deaf people’s experiences across the justice system were varied. Some people said they had good experiences with the Police. Some prisons were said to be really good at using NZSL and others not so good.

What about changes to the NZSL Act?

People talked about different things that could be done to the NZSL Act.

Some changes proposed for the NZSL Act include:

• creating a NZSL Commission to promote and monitor the use of NZSL, like the Māori Language Commission does for Māori
• adding broadcasting, so that there was more use of NZSL on television and movies
• creating a right to use NZSL for Deaf people in early childhood, primary, secondary, or tertiary education
• requiring access to NZSL interpreters in other parts of the justice system, like in reporting a crime to the Police
• making the use of NZSL a requirement for social and cultural matters, such as for funerals, weddings, or parent-teacher interviews at schools
• adding in Crown entities, such as hospitals, schools, ACC or Housing New Zealand Corporation, to those government agencies covered by the NZSL Act.

After thinking about what people had said in the review, the Minister for Disability Issues decided no change to the NZSL Act was needed. This is because the things people wanted, like more promotion of NZSL or improved access to interpreters in the wider justice system or more NZSL in broadcasting, can happen without changes to the NZSL Act.

So, the review suggests nine things that could be done to make the NZSL Act work better:

1. Ministers could promote the use of NZSL by signing a greeting at the start of speeches, in a similar way to how Māori greetings are used
2. Ministers in charge of Crown entities that provide services could remind them that they should not discriminate or treat people badly just because they can’t hear
3. government departments should make sure they use NZSL in public events they organise
4. government departments should have more information in NZSL on services they provide
5. government departments should know when they need to use a NZSL interpreter and how to get them
6. government departments that provide services should make sure their staff are trained in how to communicate with Deaf people, and when and how to use NZSL interpreters
7. government departments should tell the Office for Disability Issues each year how many meetings with Deaf people they had and whether NZSL interpreters were used
8. the Ministry of Justice should increase the training of court staff so that Deaf people find it easier to use NZSL in courts
9. the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Economic Development will work on how a video remote interpreting service for government departments could be set up, as a way to cope with the shortage of NZSL interpreters.

The Ministerial Committee is chaired by the Minister for Disability Issues. It is made up of Ministers from different areas of government.  In 2012, the Ministerial Committee will talk about what can be done to improve how the NZSL Act works.

The Minister for Disability Issues writes a report each year on things that the government has done to help disabled people. The Minister has to give a copy of this report to Parliament and make it public.

In this report, the Minister can write about what’s been done on the things that the Ministerial Committee agrees to do to improve the NZSL Act. Deaf people can find out what’s happening by reading the Minister’s report.