Telephone

Phone calls can be a particular problem for people who stammer. This page brings together DDA material about the telphone. For more on phone calls generally, see BSA's 'Telephone calls' (on BSA website). Remember that your stammer must be a disability within the DDA in order to have rights under the DDA.

A person may stammer more severely than usual on the phone, and may be tempted to avoid phone calls because of that. It is worth remembering though that in many cases there is broadly a legal obligation to allow the person who stammers to communicate, and not to treat them worse because of the stammer.

Discrimination on the phone can take various forms, for example

putting the phone down on someone because of their stammer; or
being rude because of the stammer.

This kind of treatment will often be against the DDA where it is by:

service providers - broadly anyone providing goods, services or facilities to the public, including free services such as a publicly run helpline. More on service providers...
actual or prospective employers, or even work colleagues (see below). More on employment...
education providers. More on education...

Possible remedies include compensation for injury to feelings.

The obligations can extend to a phone call with a work colleague, whether senior or junior to you - for example if the colleague hangs up on you in a work call. Unless the justification defence applies, both the colleague themself and often the employer are likely to be liable. See Claiming against individuals and others involved.

Reasonable adjustments by employers

The employer's duty to make reasonable adjustments is one of the most important parts of the DDA. My page of Examples of reasonable adjustments includes a section on the telephone.

Might phone companies give discounts for people who stammer?
See Cost of taking longer; and also these international links:
www.stuttering.ws/links/discrim_phone.htm
www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/phonecompanies.html

Reasonable adjustments by service providers

Service providers also have an obligation to make reasonable adjustments. My guidelines for service providers suggest various possible adjustments relating to the phone, such as:

allowing sufficient time, and relaxing any internal targets which get in the way of staff doing that;
avoiding telephone answering machines which cut off after perhaps a couple of seconds of pause in speech;
providing alternatives to use of the telephone;
in the case of a voice-activated phone systems where one's speech is supposed to be understood by a computer, enabling a person who has difficulty with this due to a stammer to be promptly put through to a real person;
insurance companies should be wary of using voice analysis on insurance claims in such a way as to lead to claims by people who stammer being investigated with particular suspicion on the basis that they are likely to be dishonest.

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Reasonable adjustments by employers

Might phone companies give discounts for people who stammer? See Cost of taking longer; and also these international links: www.stuttering.ws/links/discrim_phone.htm www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/phonecompanies.html Reasonable adjustments by service providers

Might phone companies give discounts for people who stammer?
See Cost of taking longer; and also these international links:
www.stuttering.ws/links/discrim_phone.htm
www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/phonecompanies.html

Reasonable adjustments by service providers