Stuttering and telecommunication technologies

1 to 3% of the world population stutter, but most of the challenges with stuttering are invisible. Stuttering is incurable and socially stigmatized: people who stutter suffer from verbal and physical bullying, social isolation, negative stereotypes, and reduced employment and relationship opportunities.

Technology has played a significant role in the marginalization of people who stutter. It is well documented that people who stutter find phone calls more challenging than in-person conversations, yet phone interviews have become a stable for many industries and employers.

While the widespread adoption of new communication technologies such as videoconferencing has been crucial in distributing employment opportunities across geographical boundaries, the impact of such technologies on PWS has not been studied or well understood. Hence, we partner with the stuttering community to investigate and re-envision videoconferencing tools that support inclusive and equitable telecommunications for all.

Our work in this domain includes:

1. Research to uncover the challenges and opportunities in telecommunication technologies for people who stutter;
2. Technical work to improve and invent telecommunications technologies that are empowering and equitable for the stuttering community;
3. Community engagement to promote and share strategies and skills for effective videoconferencing within the stuttering community;
4. Public advocacy to advise employers and the general public on virtual meeting best practices that accommodate the needs of people with speech diversity.

Shaomei Wu – AImpower.org founder and researcher – has a stutter and leads the community research on stuttering and telecommunication technologies. Our research found that videoconferencing technologies are NOT stutter friendly:

• Preset “self-view” in video calls puts people in direct confrontation with their stutter and makes them more self-conscious.
• Limited support for non-verbal channels (e.g. body language, eye contact) undermines existing communication strategies that are essential for people who stutter to express themselves and connect with their audience.

People who stutter can still participate – but with extra time, labor, and mental efforts that could systematically disadvantage in personal, professional, and public communications.

We are co-designing socio-technical solutions that would empower and ensure every voice is heard and respected in video conferences. Check out the latest update on this project.

Publications

• Jingjin Li, Shaomei Wu, and Gilly Leshed. Re-envisioning Remote Meetings: Co-designing Inclusive and Empowering Videoconferencing with People Who Stutter.. In Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’24), https://doi.org/10.1145/3643834.3661533. Honorable Mention 🏅 [Press coverage]
• Shaomei Wu, Jingjin Li, and Gilly Leshed. Finding My Voice over Zoom: An Autoethnography of Videoconferencing Experience for a Person Who Stutters. In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’24), May 11–16, 2024, Honolulu, HI, USA. 16 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642746 [Presentation]
• Shaomei Wu. 2023. “The World is Designed for Fluent People”: Benefits and Challenges of Videoconferencing Technologies for People Who Stutter. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’23), April 23-28, 2023, Hamburg, Germany. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 27 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580788

Resources

Recommendations and Best Practices for Inclusive Videoconferencing – A guide for meeting moderators and attendees (one pager). Published by AImpower.org, July 2023.

Videoconferencing Strategies for People who Stutter (one pager). Published by AImpower.org, July 2023.