Air New Zealand crew used New Zealand Sign Language to communicate with passengers as part of NZSL week May 6-12.
Video / Anna Sarjeant
To celebrate New Zealand Sign Language Week, Air New Zealand took to the skies today with a world-first flight using New Zealand sign language.
This year’s NZSL Week runs from May 6-12, with the special NZSL flight taking off from Auckland, bound for Wellington and with five cabin crew onboard capable of using New Zealand sign language to communicate with passengers.
Fittingly, this year’s theme for NZSL Week is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and what better way to live out this ethos than implementing sign language at 35,000 feet?
Air NZ gate announcement using New Zealand sign language.
Onboard Flight NZ421 were approximately 30 deaf passengers on their way to the NZSL Awards, hosted by Parliament, as well as scores of hearing customers keen to embrace what would be their first - but likely not last - NZSL flight.
Thanks to Deaf Aotearoa, staff at Air NZ have been partaking in NZSL courses since last year, learning travel-centric signs to communicate with deaf passengers throughout their journey, from arriving at the gate, to take off, in-flight communication and landing.
It is an effort that is gratefully received by Air NZ’s deaf passengers.
Erica, a deaf customer onboard today’s flight, explained that normally, air travel can be exhausting. She said that she’s required to “stay fully alert and can’t switch off.”
“There are delays and gate changes, and it’s stressful,” she said.
Fellow deaf passenger, Jon, reiterated the elation of what he described as feeling like he “belonged to the flight for the first time” and post-flight, he recounted his excitement at being “across what the captain is saying”.
Today, both passengers found out they can take Air New Zealand’s in-flight magazine, Kia Ora, home with them - thanks to Air NZ crew members using NZSL.
As part of the airline’s initiative, led by Air New Zealand’s Enable Network, staff that take the course and pass an exam are awarded an NZSL Supporter lapel pin which indicates they have started their journey to NZSL proficiency. Over 400 staff members have undertaken the course already.
Air New Zealand’s Senior Aircrafts Programmes Manager and Enable Network Lead, Ed Collett was also on today’s flight and said Air NZ is “on a journey to be more inclusive”.
The NZSL course has been a raging success, with at least 20 Air NZ staff furthering their study with additional NZSL night classes.
This year’s theme for NZSL Week is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” - even in the sky.
As with all language learning, putting the skills into practice has been instrumental in improving the communication between Air NZ staff and deaf passengers, as well as boosting the crews’ confidence in using NZSL.
It’s also proving to be a highlight for deaf customers, in a situation that can often feel intimidating, or as Erika explained, “I have often felt left out and lonely.”
Collett spoke of his joy at receiving positive feedback regarding NZSL onboard Air NZ flights. He says a customer recently contacted the airline to express their gratitude, saying that they “asked for a cup of tea and the cabin crew signed to ask if they wanted milk”.
Deaf Aotearoa chief executive Lachlan Keating confirmed that having NZSL-speaking staff can greatly improve a deaf passenger’s journey.
“It’s the little things that affect a deaf person’s quality of travel; anything from gate changes to missed PA announcements, even turbulence warnings”, he said.
The excitement was indeed palpable at both Auckland Airport and throughout the flight, with Air NZ providing in-seat demo cards covering five flight-appropriate signs that all passengers were encouraged to use with flight attendants, including water, cookie,and - because no AirNZ flight is complete without one - lolly.
Flight-appropriate signs for passengers to use onboard the Air NZ NZSL flight.
For passengers like Erica and Jon, it’s a step in the right direction. In five to 10 years time, Jon would like to see NZSL flights “as a matter of course and a more conscious effort made across all airports and planes”.
For Erika, having sign language on display is quite simply “life-saving”.
Perhaps most poignantly, Keating summarised the initiative’s importance in four words.
