BSA Vice Chair Leys Geddes is spearheading a media campaign to combat public perceptions that stammering is something to be laughed at.

YouTube is a website where subscribers upload videos and share them with other viewers. It includes a number of videos which show people stammering, or pretending to stammer, which have been classified as Comedy. When I complained to YouTube, they replied that they 'had been unable to identify a Terms of Use violation' - and so these 'Comedy' videos are still up there.

So, in late July, I posted a video on YouTube, called 'Stammering Is No Joke'. I talked about how it is to stammer, explained why it is not a joke and ended up saying: "And - please - 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."

Our key aim was to reach a non-stammering audience and get their support for the No Joke campaign. To this end we had been building interest with the Guardian and, in late September they published an article, headed 'Anger at YouTube stammer clips', reporting BSA's protest to YouTube. It quoted my original email to You Tube, which had asked whether they encourage viewers to laugh at people who are blind, crippled or deaf: 2Are they part of the comedy show too?"

Kate Hoey, one of the three MPs who have supported the BSA since last year, spoke out on our behalf: "For many people, particularly youngsters, stammering is not a joke - we need to ensure that help and support is given as early as possible and, most of all, we need to educate the public to understand the impact it has on people for the whole of their lives."

'the public hardly ever see anyone stammering, especially in the national media'

Following the Guardian article, the story was lead article on BBC Online News Features and there were interviews on two BBC Radio programmes, including PM on Radio 4. Viewings of the video now took off.

More than thirty non-UK news channels have picked up the campaign, in countries such as France, Norway, Italy and Brazil. Mexican TV even came into the BSA offices to film some interviews.

Key to the success of the campaign has been the use of a person who stammers, namely me (!), in the video and the two radio interviews. We reasoned that when these things are said by people who stammer, it gives them a lot more weight. Although my speech was pretty dreadful throughout these interviews, it did not matter because our aim was to raise awareness of stammering and, hopefully, to demonstrate that people who stammer are just as sensible as everyone else, but simply have trouble in getting the words out.

It gives us great pleasure and hope to see that when people have 'permission' to talk about stammering, which is what the No Joke media exposure has done in the UK, then the change in the 'climate', so to speak, makes it easier for people who stammer, and everyone else, to be much more open about stammering.

For the video and UK media coverage, and a link to a fuller article by Leys with discussion, go to our main 'Stammering is no joke' page.

From the Winter 2007 edition of Speaking Out, page 11