BSA Vice Chair Leys Geddes put a video on YouTube, objecting to videos of stammering being classified as 'comedy' on their website. This page includes Leys' video and some of the media coverage which it generated about public attitudes to stammering.

View Leys' Stammering is no joke video below.

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(To listen to the audio files online you need RealPlayer, which you can download from www.real.com.)

Radio 4 interview on 'PM' - listen online (5 min 49 sec)

This is an interview with Leys on Radio 4's PM programme (www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/pm). It was broadcast on 25th September 2007. You can read or post comments on the PM programme blog (link to BBC website). You can also download the interview as a higher quality mp3 file (5.32MB) or read the text alternative.

Jumoké Fashola interview - listen online (12 min 29 sec)

Another interview with Leys the following week, 3rd October, on BBC Radio London - www.bbc.co.uk/london/radio/.

BBC News article

Following the interview on 'PM', an article went up on the BBC website about public attitudes to people who stammer: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7014089.stm. The article has many comments at the bottom by people who stammer.

Guardian article

The first UK press coverage of the YouTube video was an article in the Guardian on 25th September: Anger at YouTube stammer clips (external link).

ISAD Online Conference

Leys has written about the campaign in the International Stuttering Awareness Day Online Conference 2007: www.mnsu.edu/comdis/isad10/papers/geddes10.html. This includes threaded discussion about the article.

Leys' YouTube video: 'Stammering is no joke'

In this video, which has been viewed over 20,000 times, Leys gives a personal perspective on how it is to stammer. He says: "If you meet someone who stammers, try and understand what it is like for them. And if you think stammering is a joke, just spend a few moments imagining how you would feel if you knew exactly what you wanted to say, but you couldn't actually say it."

If you stammer, you might want to put your own video about stammering on a video sharing site.

(To see the video below, you may need to click the yellow bar at the top of your browser and 'Allow Blocked Content'. The video is also available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=-epHaW8nTJQ)