Deaf community hopeful airline safety videos will feature NZSL

Deaf communities are hoping New Zealand Sign Language could soon be shown in airline safety videos after the Chief Ombudsman ruled the regulatory body's decision not to include it is "unreasonable".

Advocacy group Deaf Action New Zealand petitioned to the Civil Aviation Authority to change its rules and enforce use of sign language.

Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier ruled that agencies must provide reasonable accommodation for disabled people and take appropriate measures to ensure disabled people have access to good information.

"If you’re deaf and you’re in an aircraft watching their safety video, and there is no sign language, you don’t understand to the extent that you are entitled to what is going on and your safety might be compromised," he said.

Boshier said what Deaf Action NZ wanted was to give those who are deaf "a fair go" and ensure they could understand.

Deaf Action New Zealand originally wrote to Air New Zealand in 2018 to request NZSL be included in their videos.

Kim Robinson from Deaf Action NZ said today's ruling will have a huge impact on deaf people across the country.

"We have been waiting for such a very long time and with this announcement today, it has a great impact on everything that we do in the community in peoples' daily lives," he said.

Robinson said it's important for deaf people to have clear information in an emergency.

"If we have information provided in English, it's not always accessible and we don't always know what to do… we don't really know how to make decisions about what's going on in the outside world," he said.