New Zealand Sign Language Week Highlights Inclusion at Fonterra Clandeboye
Last week marked New Zealand Sign Language Week and a South Canterbury tanker operator is sharing what it's like to be deaf in a busy Fonterra depot.
Fonterra has copped a fair bit of stick from the Hound over the years. However, on this occasionyour old mate would like to give the dairy co-op some well-deserved praise.
It has changed a tanker collection time so that 35-year-old Andrew Oliver (one of about eight people in the world living with Fryns-Aftimos syndrome) can keep to his nightly routine of watching the tanker collect his dad Ken’s milk before going to bed at a decent time.
Apparently, Andrew, whose mental age is about six, would not go to bed until the milk tanker had been -- a problem when the collection time was 2am.
However, after his dad phoned Fonterra’s call centre to explain the family’s problem, the co-op decided to change its entire milk tanker schedule in the Te Rapa district to oblige.
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