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From: Marshall Rice
Date: 10 Oct 2006
Time: 09:05:07 -0500
Remote Name: 130.63.244.66
Hello Melissa: I really appreciate your thoughtful comments. Your question as to whether 'the insecurities of PWS cause PWS to sense greater discrimination' than actually exists is a very interesting question. Part of this is answered by some questions we asked in the survey which do not involve the perception of the PWS. Specifically, we asked survey respondents the following questions: "Has an employer ever told you that you won't be hired because of your stuttering'. We found that 14% of respondents responded 'YES' to that question. This answer cannot be attributed to just 'sensing' greater discrimination. It actually occurred. However, I agree that with the more qualitative features and questions, over-sensitivity on the part of the PWS may contribute to their feelings of discrimination. Studying this issue would be an interesting methodological challenge. Perhaps one way to do this would be to survey employers about their perceptions of people who stutter. I believe that work like that has been done, but I cannot cite the specific study. However, you raise some great questions and there is a lot more work to be done in this area. Best regards, Dr. Marshall Rice