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From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 10/21/02
Time: 1:08:35 PM
Remote Name: 157.182.12.205
Hi Ed (I assume),
An impatient man after my own heart. ;-) I, too, wonder why it takes so long to get things done.
Actually, there are lots of isolated surveys out there of the sort you suggest, and most of them show that the public (and stutterers themselves) regard stuttering in a stereotyped way. (We actually have almost all of your questions in one form or another in our pilot instrument. Do great minds think alike or what?)
The reason it takes so much time is that, to be taken seriously, a questionnaire has to undergo the standard rigorous tests of reliability and validity. For these issues, time and money are the limiting factors. Currently, I am working on an international grant, which if funded, will permit us to finish developing our questionnaire and to test it in several languages and countries around the world. Wish me luck in remaining patient while we go through that process. If we can pull it off, i.e., develop a solid instrument of the sort that the Gallup organization might create, and then measure public attitudes in carefully selected sample populations, it is not unrealistic to expect that government and non-governmental agencies will sit up and take notice of the results.
Thanks again for your interest.
Ken