[Next]
From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 10/9/00
Time: 10:36:53 AM
Remote Name: 157.182.12.51
Hi Gunars,
You are about the most prolific email writer I know. Wow! What a response.
First, thank you for the kind words about our IPATS initiative. This is but one of a number of studies that can be written up as soon as our pilot data is analyzed. On behalf of the students who actually carried out the data collection and first analysis, let me say that I appreciate your thoughtful comments and suggestions for future work in this area.
Once we have looked over all the pilot data that has been collected and is now in the process of being collected, the next step will be do a careful item analysis of the POSHA-E to pare it down a great deal and make it much more user-friendly. As it is, most people got very fatigued filling it out. We hope that this instrument will be useful for people wanting to assess public attitudes toward stuttering, even among HR personnel. The nice thing about this the POSHA is that stuttering is never mentioned per se as the primary focus of the instrument.
Thank you especially for your confidence in me to design, seek funds, and carry out a study on the attitudes of HR personnel. I’ve got way more to do right now than I can get done, but I must say you got me thinking! I never thought about the EEOO as a source of funds. Honestly, without making any more promises I can’t keep, I will seriously think about it as a part of the IPATS initiative.
I really like your list of desired traits. It would be fascinating to see which (if any*) of these would be ranked lower for those who stutter than for those who don’t or who have other problems, e.g., overweight or wheelchair users. Really….I will think about it for a project once I get a few other pressing things off my plate.
* We must be objective. Right? Reminds me of the scientist sitting beside a regular passenger on a train. The passenger remarked, "Look those sheep in the field over there were just shorn." The scientist replied, "Well they appear to be on one side." ;-)
Ken