Samuel Dunsiger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe fact that it was online intensified my anxiety as I felt like my speech disability was on display as a floating head talking to my students. It would have been different if it was in-person where I could have relied on body language as well. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve had a speech disability since I was 3 years old. To be precise, my speech disability manifests as stuttering \u2014 or rather, the involuntary disruption of words through prolongations, repetitions and pauses. <\/p>\n
Think \u201cMmmmy name is Ssssssamuel\u201d or \u201cH-h-h-h-ello, h-h-h-h-how are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not dissimilar to the speech impediment of the beloved pants-less Looney Tunes character Porky Pig. \u201cTh-th-th-that\u2019s all, folks!\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the prevalence of stuttering \u2014 the Stuttering Foundation of America estimates that 1 percent of people worldwide stutter \u2014 the speech disability remains shrouded in mystery as one of many disabilities plagued by social stigma and misconceptions. <\/p>\n
So, as I used to wonder to myself, how am I supposed to be an effective teacher when I have trouble speaking? This internal belief about myself \u2014 which I had maintained well into my adult years \u2014 was supported by the external judgments that able-bodied people often voiced to me, particularly about the kind of job they thought I should have.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think you should be in front of a classroom,\u201d one of my former teachers told me, \u201cespecially with a stutter.\u201d <\/p>\n
However, when I first started teaching my writing course two years ago, my tenure was coupled with a recent acceptance of my disability and a career in accessibility justice. At this point, I was open about my speech disability and I advocated for myself in the workplace. <\/p>\n
But those intrusive, what-if thoughts still lingered at the back of my mind. Because as frustrating as it is not to be able to say what you want to say when you want to say it, more frustrating is navigating the perceptions \u2014 and potential negative reactions \u2014 that people might have about you. And this isn\u2019t limited to stuttering, but disability in general.<\/p>\n
The fact remains that we don\u2019t talk about disability enough in the classroom. It isn\u2019t normalized and it should be. This is precisely why I started disclosing my stuttering to my students. It served as both a way for me to challenge those what-if thoughts and put myself at ease, as well as a foundation for establishing a conversation about disability in the classroom. <\/p>\n
So at the start of the term I made it a priority to disclose my speech disability. I even went the extra mile and cracked a joke about it. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou might hear that I\u2019m talking a little differently. I stutter. So we\u2019re going to be here for quite a while,\u201d I quipped. My students started to laugh. <\/p>\n
I like to incorporate humor when I talk about my stuttering as a means to help shake off people\u2019s concerns about disability and to put them more at ease. I mean, it definitely puts me more at ease as I begin teaching. But more importantly, I believe it sets a tone that disability isn\u2019t something to shy away from \u2014 that in order to break down the stigmas surrounding disability it needs to be welcomed into our lives, into our conversations and into our classrooms. <\/p>\n
To my surprise, my students began to show a blend of curiosity and appreciation. Some of them proceeded to ask me questions about what it\u2019s like to have a stutter. <\/p>\n
Do you stutter more in specific social situations?<\/p>\n
What about on specific words? <\/p>\n
What does it feel like when you stutter?<\/p>\n
Hearing their questions was music to my ears. To me, their curiosity served as an indication that not only did they look past my speech disability, but they wanted to know more about it. My disclosure turned into a conversation about stuttering, which proceeded to take up a quarter of the class. This meant that disability was out in the open. <\/p>\n
Later, I received an email from one of my students expressing gratitude that I shared my disability, which prompted the student to then open up about their learning disability. <\/p>\n
This is why, instead of shying away from my speech disability or agonizing over those what-if thoughts about potentially negative reactions to it, I chose to be transparent about my stuttering. By not speaking up about our lived experiences with disability, we inadvertently perpetuate the social stigma. It\u2019s through disclosure that we begin to have conversations that serve to normalize disability.<\/p>\n
I may have been a tad reluctant to disclose my speech disability, but I have no doubt that choosing to disclose my speech disability made me a better educator.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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