Graham Bodman, General Manager of Arts, Community and Events at Auckland Council, shares his New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) story.
Graham, how would you describe your hearing?
I have an inherited genetic mutation which means that my hearing gets progressively worse as I get older. I inherited this from my mum, who got it from her mum, who got it from her dad.
There's a 50 per cent chance of passing it on, and as a result two of my three children have also got it and wear hearing aids (even through their hearing loss is only mild at this time).
I've worn hearing aids for the past 18 years, and every few years they need to be 'turned up' or upgraded to enable greater levels of amplification (nothing beats my great-grandfather's ear horn, apparently).
Does your family use NZSL?
My wife (with excellent hearing) is very keen that we as a family learn NZSL. She's sick of the noise as we yell from one end of the room to the other! And there's regular miscommunication like when 'put the cup in the dishwasher' becomes 'put the cat in the dishwasher', and so on…
Last year we started taking NZSL lessons with the Auckland Deaf Society Inc and my youngest son also started 'Sign language with Nick' lessons in his intermediate school class – which was a great confidence-builder for him.
In terms of my own journey, although I haven't been the best NZSL student, I've been interested to learn that people with partial hearing loss, and not just the profoundly deaf, benefit from using NZSL.
My wife and youngest son are much more diligent than me – but I'm slowly picking it up.
What else is happening in the NZSL community?
I'm really pleased to note that NZSL has recently been accredited as an NCEA subject, and we are advocating for our local secondary school to offer this as a subject. There's more information on this here if you're interested.
I'd also like to put in a plug for Auckland Parents of Deaf Children Inc. which is a great organisation for parents of children with mild through to profound hearing loss. It has really helped our family, and NZSL features prominently.
