Deafness no barrier

摘要

Customers of Porana Carpet Overlooking on Auckland's North Shore are in for a treat in May. It is New Zealand Sign Language Week early in the month and Porana Overlocking's owner manager, Tim Lewin, plans to offer his customers free lessons in sign language when they visit his business. Tim and his wife Sam, a co-owner in the business, are both profoundly deaf and that brings with it a set of challenges different to what most business owners have to address. And the couple are not alone. The National Foundation for the Deaf website says that 880,000-plus New Zealanders live with a hearing loss and that 300,000-plus New Zealanders aged between 20 and 64 have a hearing loss.