Are we ready to include stuttering sensitization in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging policies?

What is Minority Stress?

More than a term, it is a framework. When the framework first came to prominence in the 1990s and early 2000s, it was one to help explain how certain minority groups experience disproportionate poor mental health outcomes. The rise in prominence of this notion was significant in terms of coming to a greater understanding of why sexual minorities (people who identify as lesbian, gay, and bisexual) experienced a high number of mental health issues-issues that can be attributed to stressors such as rejection, hiding, internalized homophobia, external homophobia, and more. With this minority stress framework, it is easier to see how such stressors lead to poor mental health outcomes.

Our friends who stutter also experience minority stress. How many such friends do we have? 1% of the world's population. Quite a big number to blow our minds!

Let’s go inside this number. Ready for some Truthbombs?

Those who are in multiple minority communities experience minority stress (with its relevant stressors) for all of the communities they are in.

Ever wondered why we need ‘women in web 3.0’ community? Hope you have your answer.

About Stuttering

First of all, what is stuttering or transfluent speech?

To stutter is to speak with sudden involuntary pauses and a tendency to repeat some letters of words and it's accompanied by uncontrollable and irregular facial expressions.

However, our friends who stutter are definitely not the people who cannot partake in communication-oriented work. On the contrary, most people who stutter (or PWS) have a very nuanced and holistic understanding of communication since we have spent a considerable portion of our lives in silent observation. Now, you have answer to how people who stutter become great actors, politicians, and singers -? actor Emily Blunt, Sheila Fraser, Peggy Lipton, comedian Pooja Vijay, NinaG and Marilyn Monroe to the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, orator Demosthenes, King George VI, US President Joe Biden, country singer Mel Tillis, Former Indian Prime Minister Lt. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, actor Hritik Roshan & many many others. You can check out entire list here

Certainly, the only disability in life is a bad attitude.

Hence, even a PWS can be engaged in vocations such as marketing, as long as the workplace is supportive of their condition.

Due to the stigma surrounding stuttering, our friends might pressurize themselves to fit into the definition of 'normal' fluency of speech, which can further aggravate the extent of their stuttering leading some of us to muffle.

In fact, our female and transgender friends who stutter are survivors of a form of dual discrimination in patriarchal and ableist societies. Hence, there is an ingredient of intersectionality as to how society responds to a stutter.

When I identify myself as a woman who stutters, I am not self victimizing but rather making myself clear that being a woman who stutters has given me and still gives me brilliant opportunities to become more self aware, question the status quo and tenaciously find who I want to become. It would be most appropriate to say that being transfluent is a blessing in disguise, in my case, atleast.

But all our friends might have not gotten enough opportunities to realize their highest values and are still coping with complicated minority stress on a daily basis at work and elsewhere.

In order to help them, I started a self support group for women who stutter with my self-taught learnings from Holistic Psychology, Sociology & Mindfulness.

I have previously written a blog on the power of this community. You can go through it for more nuanced insights.

While joining the community, these wonder-women described other people’s reactions to their speech as mostly unhelpful and thought this was due to a lack of understanding and mediated by societal gender norms. They shared that stuttering influenced relationships originating within their team which unconsciously spread to their other relationships at the workplace. I am keeping the experiences of (women who stutter) entrepreneurs & angel investors for a more detailed discussion because of its sheer profoundness.

All of them sought to come out of their relationship difficulties in their workplaces. Some shared about their negative experiences in college, like bullying and lack of support from faculty members, leading them to feel as if their ‘potential was overlooked’. And these ladies sought jobs with minimal speaking or ‘pushed’ themselves academically and professionally to ‘compensate’ for their transfluent speech. Why compensate for our differences, instead of feeling included for who we are.

This community renders a deeper understanding of the areas of impact and highlights the complex variety of interrelated ways in which stuttering colors women’s lives.

The impact of stuttering on women’s lives is actually so pervasive that, to many of them, it seemed difficult to separate their transfluent speech patterns from other elements of their experience. It is so embedded within their lives that it appears to become a part of their ‘identities’, consequently affecting their self perception. As a result, quality of life is affected because stuttering impacts feelings of ‘connectedness with team members’.

Why should it Matter to you?

It absolutely matters, on both a personal level and a policy level.

On a personal level, stressors that lead to the experiences of minority stress for a wide group of minority communities should be a call to self-examination, to see whether we act in ways that contribute to that minority stress for our friends of color, friends with disabilities and friends who have transfluent speech.

And if we find that we do, it’s a call to change our actions. That self-examination may not be easy and may result in letting go of long-held beliefs about certain people or groups of people, but some people’s well-being depends on it.

On an organizational level, I hope that the stressors which lead to the experiences of minority stress would be a call to action for our founders, HRs & DEIB folks to see whether any policies or laws in the organization contribute to minority stress for ANY marginalized communities, for that matter. And then, if any policies do contribute in such a negative way, strike them off.

How can we become Better Allies?

We collectively need to change how we respond to stuttering. It is not at all okay to deride, humiliate, or question our friends who stutter, especially with an ulterior motive. Even humour that uses statements such as “Did you just stutter?” or in virtual set-ups, "Your voice is breaking / irritating / disturbing" to infer a supposed disclarity in the speaker’s speech is an example of derogatory humour. We need to dissociate from such insensitive comedy. We, as a society, need to create an environment that is conducive for ALL of us, not some of us.

Once we start including stuttering sensitization into DEIB policies, we need to do it right i.e. stop misrepresenting people who stutter, for the sake of superficial art and capitalist propaganda about inclusivity.

DO:

• Be a patient listener and allow the PWS to communicate.

DON'T:

• If you find a PWS stammering/stuttering, do NOT attempt to complete their words

I hope for a world where transfluent voices are more dignified.That is my hope, and that is my dream.

With this hope, I recently shared my views at StutterFEST’22 organized by the World Stuttering Network.

The network would like me to serve as Board Member to dignify transfluent voices in women. I am filled with humility & invigorated with hope to take tangible actions towards my dream with the power of this incredible network.

I invite you to reflect on - When is the right time to lay down stuttering sensitization policies? They say, the best time was yesterday and the next best time is today. So, are we ready?