Mojo Mathers takes her place in Parliament as New Zealand's first profoundly deaf MP writes Adam Bennett for New Zealand Herald (15/12/11).
She will be relying on the "far from ideal" solution of electronic note taking to follow proceedings but Ms Mathers hopes a more advanced "cap relay" service providing near real time captioning for Parliamentary TV, which would also allow the other 700,000 hearing impaired New Zealanders to follow Parliament better, will be provided before long.
Ms Mathers became profoundly deaf after being starved of oxygen at birth, but has led an active public life as a candidate for the Greens in three elections.
Named for the song Got My Mojo Working by bluesman Muddy Waters, Ms Mathers became the Greens' 14th MP after special votes were counted last weekend.
Since arriving at Parliament for caucus meetings and induction, she has been in discussions with the Parliamentary Service and the Office of the Clerk about arrangements to allow her to participate fully in the House.
"In the short term, what's immediately available is electronic note taking," she told the Herald yesterday. It will not be ideal because there's a bit of a time delay and it's not verbatim."
That initial arrangement means Ms Mathers will have a screen showing Parliament TV, enabling her to lip read when the House is being addressed by an MP sitting behind her. At the same time she will receive a text feed on her iPad provided by a notetaker watching proceedings on a video feed.
"My goal is ultimately captioning, because that then becomes a service for all 700,000 hearing-impaired New Zealanders."
She said that could be achieved via a "cap relay" service which is an advanced form of the telephone relay service now available to enable the hearing and speech-impaired to use the telephone.
The current service allows hearing impaired users to receive the other side of a telephone conversation via text, typed out by a relay assistant who listens in.
Ms Mathers said that in a cap relay service, the relay assistant would speak the response into voice recognition software to convert it into text, giving a faster service and therefore an easier conversation.
At present insufficient people have signed up for the service for it to be set up in New Zealand. But Ms Mathers hopes that will happen soon, and that the same technology can be used to provide real time captions on Parliament TV.
Ms Mathers said she had encountered few problems during public meetings when she campaigned for the Greens as other candidates were usually experienced in public speaking "therefore articulate in a way that's easy for me to lip read. At those meetings she was accompanied by a note taker who wrote down questions from the floor.
Showing posts with label New Zealand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Zealand. Show all posts
Friday, 16 December 2011
Monday, 12 December 2011
NDF congratulates NZ's first profoundly deaf MP
NZ Green Party's Mojo Mathers becomes New Zealand's first profoundly deaf Member of Parliament reports Voxy.co.nz (12/12/11).
"It's a fantastic achievement," says Louise Carroll, CEO of The National Foundation for the Deaf. "We are looking forward to working with her over the next three years."
Ms Mathers is one of over 700,000 New Zealanders who are deaf or hearing impaired. She is a wonderful role model, a shining example of how people who are deaf or hearing impaired can be positive, active members of their communities" says Ms Carroll.
The National Foundation for the Deaf hopes that the appointment of Ms Mathers may help make parliamentary information and debates more accessible for people who are deaf and hearing impaired.
"New Zealand has the lowest amount of captioning on TV in the western world," says Ms Carroll. "This is a good opportunity for parliament to make some much needed changes."
"It's a fantastic achievement," says Louise Carroll, CEO of The National Foundation for the Deaf. "We are looking forward to working with her over the next three years."
Ms Mathers is one of over 700,000 New Zealanders who are deaf or hearing impaired. She is a wonderful role model, a shining example of how people who are deaf or hearing impaired can be positive, active members of their communities" says Ms Carroll.
The National Foundation for the Deaf hopes that the appointment of Ms Mathers may help make parliamentary information and debates more accessible for people who are deaf and hearing impaired.
"New Zealand has the lowest amount of captioning on TV in the western world," says Ms Carroll. "This is a good opportunity for parliament to make some much needed changes."
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Deaf woman scammed over Facebook
New Zealand Deaf Woman defrauded by Facebook scam writes Nicola Murphy for Auckland Now (10/11/11).
Roi Stephens usually ignores messages telling her she's won an international lottery draw.
But she thought information about a sweepstake from someone who appeared to be her Aunt must be genuine.
Now the hearing-impaired Henderson resident is almost $1300 out of pocket after being told she'd ''won'' $20,000.
She received a message through Facebook last month from a fraudster who had hacked into an Aunt's account and sent messages to her contacts suggesting they enter the lottery draw.
The email was written with poor spelling and grammar but Stephens didn't think anything of it because English is her Aunt's second language.
She entered the draw and was notified she had ''won'' but was required to send money for supposed fees for a man to travel from Nigeria to deliver her winnings.
The man called, texted and emailed Stephens regularly to make sure she was sending the money.
She had already sent him $1280 when she read an article about online scammers and the penny dropped.
''I just thought 'oh my God, what am I going to do?''' she says.
Stephens had sent the man money she had been saving for a new hearing aid.
The mother-of-three says the situation has been difficult and emotional for her and her family.
''I feel bad but it's been a learning curve.''
When Stephens went to a dairy to transfer the money via Western Union, the owner warned her it was a scam.
He comes across such cases like Stephens' at least once a month.
''I try not to enter into customers' business but if they are regulars I know them well, I ask them if they know the person they're sending the money to.''
Stephens recommends social media users keep their sites private so only approved parties can see their profiles.
Henderson community constable Debi Leahy says the people behind the scams are getting more creative.
''With the deaf community, if you look at what's on their Facebook pages and you read their conversations, it's obvious that they're deaf.''
She says the scammers take advantage of this, as they do with older people or those on dating sites who they perceive as lonely and therefore easily drawn in.
Leahy says money transferred through Western Union is impossible to trace and recommends people only transfer send money to those they know.
She receives at least one call a week about scams, both before and after money has been sent.
''It's nothing to be ashamed of,'' Leahy says.
''Sometimes you're just caught at the wrong moment and you've got a load of bills to pay or you're feeling the recession and you're not thinking rationally,'' she says.
Roi Stephens usually ignores messages telling her she's won an international lottery draw.
But she thought information about a sweepstake from someone who appeared to be her Aunt must be genuine.
Now the hearing-impaired Henderson resident is almost $1300 out of pocket after being told she'd ''won'' $20,000.
She received a message through Facebook last month from a fraudster who had hacked into an Aunt's account and sent messages to her contacts suggesting they enter the lottery draw.
The email was written with poor spelling and grammar but Stephens didn't think anything of it because English is her Aunt's second language.
She entered the draw and was notified she had ''won'' but was required to send money for supposed fees for a man to travel from Nigeria to deliver her winnings.
The man called, texted and emailed Stephens regularly to make sure she was sending the money.
She had already sent him $1280 when she read an article about online scammers and the penny dropped.
''I just thought 'oh my God, what am I going to do?''' she says.
Stephens had sent the man money she had been saving for a new hearing aid.
The mother-of-three says the situation has been difficult and emotional for her and her family.
''I feel bad but it's been a learning curve.''
When Stephens went to a dairy to transfer the money via Western Union, the owner warned her it was a scam.
He comes across such cases like Stephens' at least once a month.
''I try not to enter into customers' business but if they are regulars I know them well, I ask them if they know the person they're sending the money to.''
Stephens recommends social media users keep their sites private so only approved parties can see their profiles.
Henderson community constable Debi Leahy says the people behind the scams are getting more creative.
''With the deaf community, if you look at what's on their Facebook pages and you read their conversations, it's obvious that they're deaf.''
She says the scammers take advantage of this, as they do with older people or those on dating sites who they perceive as lonely and therefore easily drawn in.
Leahy says money transferred through Western Union is impossible to trace and recommends people only transfer send money to those they know.
She receives at least one call a week about scams, both before and after money has been sent.
''It's nothing to be ashamed of,'' Leahy says.
''Sometimes you're just caught at the wrong moment and you've got a load of bills to pay or you're feeling the recession and you're not thinking rationally,'' she says.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
