UK BUSINESSES FAILING IN THEIR DUTY TO PEOPLE WHO STAMMER

EMBARGO 22ND October 2025

STAMMA are launching ‘End Phone Call Nightmares’ campaign, on 22^nd October, International Stammering Awareness Day, to draw attention to the simple changes that business can make to ensure that every call from a person who stammers is productive and respectful.

Under the Equality Act and the Disability Discrimination Act (NI), businesses have a legal duty to anticipate and act on the needs of disabled customers so they can access services

Despite this, millions of phone calls made by people who stammer are mishandled by UK businesses every year, according to a new report from STAMMA, the leading UK charity for people who stammer. In their survey looking at the experiences of people who stammer, the report found that 65% of the last call made to a business, was mishandled. People were talked over, misunderstood, trapped in voice recognition loops or hung up on. 98% of those surveyed said that calling a business was difficult.

• 98% said that they found making calls to businesses difficult.
• 65% of people who stammer faced barriers because of their stammer.
• 1 in 7 were hung up on
• 24% struggled to get past a voice recognition system

A YouGov survey, commissioned by STAMMA in 2024 found that just 36% of people working in the call centre industry recognised that silence on a call could be due to a caller getting stuck on words.

STAMMA is urging businesses to implement training and make simple changes to remove barriers for callers who stammer

“If a business takes incoming calls from the public, then they have a legal duty* to expect and plan for the needs of people who stammer”, said CEO, Jane Powell. “Our report finds this isn’t happening. Millions of calls every year are mishandled because of a basic lack of training and simple processes.

At least half a million adults stammer in the UK stammer, which, according to ContactBabel, the leading analyst firm for the contact centre industry, equates to at least 43 million calls made by adults who stammer every year, even accounting for the fact that people who stammer try and avoid making phone calls.

The campaign includes a 30s cinema ad, featuring a claw emerging from the back of a phone, and Out of Home advertising, supported by Pearl & Dean and JCDecaux UK produced pro bono by Iris Worldwide. For the public, the campaign has a simple message when faced with silence on a call, ‘Don’t hang up. Hang on’.

The failure to successfully make a call to an organisation or business can have real consequences for the lives of people who stammer. It can mean failing to report a lost card, book a GP appointment, access insurance, book a hotel, track a parcel. One person wrote:

“I was put through to a voice activated automated menu immediately, so no opportunity to say I stammered. This resulted in me repeating a 14-digit tracking number literally about 10 times as the automated service could not understand it due to my stammer. The more times I had to repeat, the more frustrated and anxious I became, exacerbating my stammer further. I ended up in tears with the frustration I felt.”

The campaign will run for at least 12 months and is part of STAMMA’s ‘Space to Stammer’ strategy, supported by the National Lottery.

Some of the report findings

Taking the last call made, people reported that:

• 32% Had their words guessed or assumed
• 31% Were talked over
• 24% Got stuck on voice recognition systems
• 14% Were hung up on
• 5% Were laughed at.

Ends

Notes for Editors

Data from a survey of 356 people who stammer, conducted over September 2025.

Under the Equality Act and the Disability Discrimination Act (NI), businesses have a legal duty to anticipate and act on the needs of disabled customers so they can access services

At least 550,000 adults in the UK stammer, which, according to ContactBabel, the leading analyst firm for the contact centre industry, equates to at least 43.5 million calls made by adults who stammer every year, accounting for the fact that people who stammer try and avoid making phone calls. Using a 32%to 68% voice to digital figure, against UK overall of 68% voice, 32% digital, this gives 43.5m voice calls.