New Zealand Sign Language community: Survey on policies, accessibility

Who are the members of the New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) community? What are their perceptions about the vitality of NZSL? In other words, what do they believe are the biggest threats to the survival of NZSL? In response to these questions, a team of researchers conducted a survey. They offered the survey online, in hard copy, and also in person for participants who had literacy barriers. Meanwhile, the majority of participants were deaf or hard of hearing, but 14 percent were hearing. The survey asked where participants first learned NZSL, and where they used it most now. In addition, participants shared their opinions about accessibility barriers and inequalities for sign language users. They also share opinions about the impact of the NZSL Act of 2006. 

Authors Rachel McKee and Micky Vale released this report on the New Zealand Sign Language Community via the Deaf Studies Research Unit at the Victoria University of Wellington in 2014. Meanwhile, this PDF file is accessible for people using screen reading software but with some difficulty. For example, it does not use bookmarks, and it is not tagged to say its natural language.

Also explore our other resources about different sign languages around the world.