New Zealand · Open market · Operating partnership
Access on this page: Signed: New Zealand Sign Language — pending How this page is tested
This page in sign language
Signed end to end by a Deaf creator, credited by name. International Sign on the global site; your national sign language on your country page.
ally is a platform where creators make sign language, captions and audio description — and one API delivers it to any screen. We are looking for the partner who will build the New Zealand operation with us.
Why we are looking for a partner
One partner video — spoken, captioned and signed by a creator we already work with. It is shared across every open-market page. We do not fake a local signer to look established here.
The people
New Zealand's sign language is NZSL — an official language of New Zealand under the NZSL Act 2006, alongside English and te reo Māori. Deaf Aotearoa is the national Deaf-led organisation; the NZSL Board has advised government since 2015. In 2020 the community and TVNZ put the interpreter in the main picture on a channel of their own.
In plain words
Below is who lives here and what reaches them. Every number on this page is a research seed, not an audited claim — we mark them, rather than publish numbers we cannot yet stand behind.
Why captions alone do not close this gap → Why sign language
The mandate
declares NZSL an official language of New Zealand, provides for its use in legal proceedings and sets principles for government departments; Royal Assent 10 April 2006.
reported 8 August 2017: no legal captioning requirement; TVNZ 1 56%, TVNZ 2 73%, Three 30% (year to 30 June 2016); recommended captioning as a condition of public funding.
to make the NZSL Board (established 2015) statutory, monitor the Act's effectiveness and embed Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles.
introduced 2022; the disability sector and the then-opposition called for it to be withdrawn and redrafted.
Obligated buyers: public broadcasters and NZ On Air-funded production (through funding conditions rather than statute), government departments under the NZSL Act's principles, and any provider under the Human Rights Act 1993.
The gap
New Zealand has official-language status and no delivery duty. No law requires captions or NZSL on television; captioning is funded by NZ On Air through Able. In 2017 Parliament's Government Administration Committee measured TVNZ 1 at 56% captioned, TVNZ 2 at 73%, Three at 30%, and recommended captioning as a condition of funding. Cinema has no mandate. An official language that nothing obliges anyone to broadcast is the clearest delivery gap on this site.
What we bring
These are patterns, not promises — each one happened somewhere, and each carries its source. The place is abstracted because the pattern is what transposes.
Pattern
A replicable template: the ordinance language, the budget logic and the service behind it travel together. Any city can copy it.
Two city ordinances — one on healthcare accessibility, one on cinema accessibility — have passed first reading, with ally as technical partner.
Receipt: Parañaque City Council records
Pattern
The platform exists before the first contract. Buyers pay for a service, not for research.
ally's pre-operating research and development was supported by a national science research grant and a city government grant.
Receipt: company fact
Pattern
Real usage, real feedback, and the model for any school or district that wants signed content on what students already watch.
A telco-funded 2021 pilot brought the platform to a Deaf school community of about 800 users.
Receipt: company fact
We publish our signals — including the zeros — on the impact page.
The partnership
The structure is a licensed market operation, built with the local community. Terms are discussed directly.
The playbook
The partner
Operators with standing in accessibility, media, telecom, or government services. Deaf-led organisations and entrepreneurs are explicitly welcome — the best operator of an accessibility market may come from the community itself. Investors are welcome alongside an operator, or to introduce one.
Why now
Cabinet agreed on 29 March 2023 to make the NZSL Board statutory and to monitor the Act's effectiveness. The Accessibility for New Zealanders Bill stalled in 2024 when the sector demanded a stronger one, so the next instrument is being written now. A partner who brings NZSL delivery to a funder that already wants a captioning condition arrives while the rules are being rewritten.
Next step
Write to us — by form, by email, or with a signed or spoken video message. From there: an introductory call, an NDA, the New Zealand market dossier, then terms.
Questions