Deaf Association of New Zealand
[June 2002] The Deaf Association provide numerous services to deaf people and their website is one of them.
The website has five main sections, clearly laid out and easily reached from anywhere within the site. Once you reach a main section more choices become available which relate only to that section.
Online Community is a place for sharing news, events and other items. This section contains the library, information about videos, news and events.
One section of the site is devoted to the Deaf Association itself - both the National Office and the local branches. There's plenty of detail here about activities and personnel, along with contact information and office hours. Find out where to locate an Interpreter, what they charge and how best to use them in this section, or get details on donations and bequests, volunteers and vacancies.
Another section deals with deafness - what it is and is not, the deaf culture, some simple communication rules, and seems to offer Information Kits. Unfortunately the Kits aren't yet available.
If you're interested in Sign Language, where to learn it and how it differs from other languages (and other countries' sign languages); if you want to find out how to finger spell or to download NZSL font for Windows then there is a section for you.
The site is rounded out with links and news.
The site works well and generally looks great too. The news section (Other Links) has a rather too narrow column with too much text in a small font. One item at the time of visit was over 400 words long with no headings or breaks - just impossible to read. Most items though were very short and readable.
The site also uses Javascript dropdown menus. These are very annoying, show up unexpectedly when you're just mousing around the page and happen to roll over the menu and block text you might be trying to read while they are dropped down. Fortunately you can still navigate by clicking on the section name, so if you take the precaution of turning off Javascript in your browser you can still navigate the site without the annoyance.
Beautiful Alastair McAra photos complement the text, though there are some alt text attributes missing for those who surf with images off or who can't get the pictures.
All in all this is an excellent and informative site with a great deal of information for anyone interested in deafness in New Zealand.
http://www.deaf.co.nz/