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Education: some important general comments

It is easy to get the impression just looking at anti-discrimination law that the world is full of people out to discriminate against people who stammer for example, or perhaps that a person who stammers is somehow not going to get on without special help. That certainly needs not be true. My partner and I, who both stammer, came through the education system without special legislation or measures for our stammering, relying on nothing much more than the sensitivity of teachers to the needs of each pupil (which some teachers will always have more than others!). We did both have speech therapy, though I am not sure it helped much - it can probably help rather more now. Without any special legislation I was granted extra time for one of my language oral exams - though as it turned out I didn't need it. (now, I might need to be on the special needs register to be allowed extra time).

The point is that the law and formal arrangements which I discuss here can be useful, and serve as a useful context. However, it should not be assumed that without them there will be necessarily be a problem, though I am all for using the extra support and provision offered by the special needs system where appropriate. If there is a particular problem, it is almost always possible to at least talk it over with the people involved. They may not always understand stammering that well and explaining the postion may solve the problem. This can be done even if there is no "right" to have the problem resolved, eg particularly at a college or university. Involving a relevant speech therapist or the British Stammering Association in doing this may also help. People will not generally be out to disadvantage a pupil or student who stammers. The discussion on this website, which focusses on what rules there actually are, should be seen in that context.

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Last updated 27th February, 2001