"The World is Designed for Fluent People": Benefits and Challenges of Videoconferencing Technologies for People Who Stutter

Title of the Paper

"The World is Designed for Fluent People”: Benefits and Challenges of Videoconferencing Technologies for People Who Stutter

Bibliographic Information

• Subject Area: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Assistive Technology, Speech and Communication Disorders
• Keywords: Videoconferencing, Computer-Mediated Communication, Linguistic Diversity, Stuttering, Accessibility Technology, Speech Recognition
• Conference: CHI 2023 Conference
• Author: Shaomei Wu (AImpower.org)

Research Background and Problem Statement

• Identified Problems or Challenges:

  • Modern videoconferencing technologies provide convenience for the general population but pose additional challenges for people who stutter (PWS), including difficulties in verbal communication, identity management, and psychological anxiety.
  • Videoconferencing reduces non-verbal communication cues, exacerbating communication difficulties for people who stutter (e.g., challenges in turn-taking or misunderstandings during communication breakdowns).
  • People who stutter must invest extra emotional and cognitive effort to adapt to videoconferencing technologies, with certain features like “self-view” intensifying their discomfort.

• Significance:

  • Stuttering is often accompanied by social stigma and self-consciousness, impacting personal development and social relationships.
  • In an era of widespread adoption of videoconferencing technologies, understanding the unique needs of this group is crucial for enhancing social inclusivity and improving technology design.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • Previous studies have primarily focused on the impact of videoconferencing on general users and other non-verbal communication-impaired groups (e.g., individuals who are deaf or neurodiverse), but have not thoroughly examined the unique experiences and needs of people who stutter.
  • This study incorporates the subjective experiences of people who stutter, aiming to optimize technology design while promoting societal acceptance and support for linguistic diversity.

Proposed Solution

• Proposed Methods or Solutions:

  • Conduct semi-structured interviews with 13 adults who stutter to explore their specific experiences, challenges, coping strategies, and suggestions for videoconferencing.
  • Employ inductive qualitative analysis to code and categorize themes from the interview content.

• Innovations:

  • Provide new insights into how videoconferencing technologies interact with the communication characteristics of people who stutter.
  • Highlight the emotional and cognitive burdens imposed by videoconferencing on people who stutter, beyond merely observing its impact on communication efficiency.
  • Address the stigma commonly faced by people who stutter in interpersonal and professional communication, discussing how technology can support diverse speech patterns while fostering social inclusion.

• Implementation Steps and Techniques:

  • Recruit interview participants through online communities and social networks to ensure diverse backgrounds.
  • Conduct interviews using mainstream videoconferencing tools like Zoom, and extract core themes through coding and categorization.
  • Design future recommendations emphasizing both technological adjustments and shifts in meeting culture.

Research Findings

• Specific Findings:

  • Summarized the benefits of videoconferencing for people who stutter, such as increased convenience for attending meetings, reduced self-consciousness, enhanced community connections, and fostering public empathy toward individuals with communication disorders.
  • Also revealed several challenges posed by videoconferencing, including psychological stress from self-view functionality, difficulties in turn-taking, and the absence of non-verbal communication cues.

• Advantages Over Existing Solutions:

  • Based on the subjective experiences of people who stutter, the study proposes directions for improving current videoconferencing technologies, including optimizing support for non-verbal communication, providing self-expression options, and reducing the stress caused by self-view functionality.
  • Expands the scope of prior research in HCI and accessibility design by focusing on the needs of people who stutter.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • The study found that nearly half of the participants turned off the self-view feature in videoconferencing to reduce stress; many reported increased acceptance of their speech disorder and improved confidence through community-based video meetings.
  • People who stutter often need to exert additional effort to compensate for technological shortcomings (e.g., inability to convey non-verbal signals to other participants).

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations:

    • The participant group primarily consisted of individuals with mild stuttering, excluding users with severe speech impairments.
    • The study sample was drawn from the U.S. and U.K., without examining the experiences of people who stutter in other cultural contexts.

  • Future Directions:

    • Investigate the videoconferencing needs of individuals with more severe speech impairments.
    • Examine feedback on communication technologies from people who stutter in diverse cultural and national contexts.
    • Encourage video platform developers to create features that support linguistic diversity (e.g., non-intrusive speech prompts, improved automatic captioning technologies).

This study, through the personal experiences of people who stutter, reveals that mainstream videoconferencing systems fail to fully meet the needs of linguistic diversity. It also proposes several directions for improving HCI and meeting culture, providing theoretical foundations and practical guidance for creating more inclusive technological systems and social environments.