Thank you for this article, Jack. I'm visually impaired so know what it's like to be bullied for something you can't help. Eye contact is difficult for me to read or maintain, so I know how painful certain social situations can be, and how much easier it is to find shortcuts (like self-service machines at MacDonald's). I hate having to order things from cafes because I can never see the boards or the little labels they have on their sandwiches. 🙂

I really appreciated getting a little peek into the mind of a stammerer, at least from your perspective as I'm sure it may differ from others. I tend to have quite strong empathetic triggers/responses to certain situations, and for whatever reason stammering is one of them (for those with a speech impediment I mean, rather than those of us who just stutter as part of everyday speech). So for me I'm less trying to finish someone's sentence, and more just wanting them to not feel as if they're suffering. I hope that makes sense and doesn't feel nearly as condescending as it might sound. It feels to me as if the speaker is having a fight with their own brain or mouth, and that struggle feels unfair to bear.

I've never had the courage to ask a stammerer about the experience (as it's not their job to make me feel better about their stammer!), so I really applaud both your openness in this article and also face-to-face. I hope you do have the opportunity to speak publicly. and I feel I can relate to not wanting to give into the fear (I can't really use any kind of notes on-stage when I speak, so I have to use visual prompts in my slides that I can glance at, to remind me what to focus on). I think, finding your own little hacks, not to disguise what you have, but to work with it can be really effective.

Hope this wasn't too long or excruciating. Really appreciated your take, thanks again.