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About this web site

Generally about the website
Past, present and future

Generally about the website

This website looks mainly at the position of stammering under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and certain related issues. Stammering is the same as stuttering. My name is Allan Tyrer and I am a solicitor (no longer practising, out of choice). I have a stammer. Click here for more about me and my partner.

The website is written mainly from the point of view of the person who stammers (or his adviser) looking into his rights under the DDA, but employers and service providers dealing with people who stammer will find it useful as well. The guidelines for service providers are specifically focussed at businesses and others such as local authorities providing goods and services to the public.

I am not unbiased on many of the issues raised. Ultimately issues will have to be decided by the courts. I have sometimes tended to suggest how one can argue for an interpretation in favour of the person with the stammer so far as reasonable, but I have kept within what I think can be justified legally and have indicated when I do not think something is clear in law.

I use the words "he" and "his" for people who stammer, employers and everyone else. I do this only for convenience, and any female people (with stammers or otherwise) or entities such as companies should please feel themselves included as well.

Of course I would be very interested to hear if anyone spots errors or omissions, always bearing in mind that the site does not aim to cover every detail, or anything which is out-of-date. I would also be very interested to hear any other comments on the web site, and indeed any personal experiences of discrimination or lack of it. Click here to email.

Past, present and future

I started the website originally because so far as I knew no one had really looked at how the DDA applied to stammering and indeed whether it did apply. My partner and I would sometimes mention the DDA, qualifying it by saying "if it applies to stammering". So I thought I would combine my legal skills with my knowledge of stammering to find some answers. Also I was interested in writing a website on something or other and this seemed a good topic.

The first thing I wrote were the more detailed legal pages, which went up on the internet in Autumn 1999. This was useful stuff but rather long for everyone to wade through, so I very quickly added shorter guides on each area (meaning of disability, employment etc) in question and answer form.

I had originally thought there was not much to say about education because it is generally excluded from the DDA. However, looking at it further it became apparent that there was a lot in that area that could be used to protect people who stammer against discrimination if necessary, so I added the Education pages. Since then, the education has been brought within the DDA more fully, and the education pages updated to reflect that.

I was particularly pleased to add the Sources of help and advice page, to help people find where to go for specific help on their particular issues. I also added pages on how stammering impacts on social security benefits - which was an area that I keep hearing questions on. A more recent expansion of the website was a page on Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

A lot of changes have either happened recently or will soon happen - such as the Human Rights Act, legislation to cover discrimination in education, and the Government's proposals to amend the DDA. There are also case law developments to try and keep up with. So ongoing updating is needed, and this doesn't always happen immediately.

Apart from updating, the main issue is trying to make the material on the website readily understandable and findable for people, while also trying to give a reasonable amount of detail for people who want it. I may succeed in this - or not - to a different extent for different visitors. In any event it is a continuing issue for me.

An exciting development is that the British Stammering Association has now become involved much more in stammering and employment issues. (I don't claim any credit for that - it was underway before this website came along.) See the employment page on their website.

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