According to reports, a group of 9 represented by the National Foundation for the Deaf, celebrated the acceptance of their discrimination claim against ACC by the Human Rights Commission.

In the claim, they reported, "ACC's hearing-loss threshold before it will accept a claim, and its age-deduction scale, were both discriminatory on the grounds of age and disability".

Also, ACC will be invited to take part in the mediation, and if it refuses the offer, the Hair Loss Group can apply to raise their case to a `class action', which will be heard by the Human Rights Tribunal.

However, the `threshold and age deductions' had got thousands of people out of the ACC scheme, as the foundation's Chief Executive, Louise Carroll said, "Noise attacks the tones of our hearing we use for speech discrimination, and the way different tones are rated. It can take a lot of damage in that area to get a total 6 per cent loss".

Moreover, the ACC Minister, Nick Smith, expressed that he has not had an opportunity to discuss with ACC on whether to continue with the mediation, as they do not want any disagreement and if it can be resolved through mediation as a minister, he is open to it, though he intends to seek a formal advice.