Construction Network (Online) Oct 2025

Working with colleagues and customers with speech differences

There are a whole host of speech differences that can affect how your colleagues interact with you and with their role, as well as your customers and members of the general public. For example, at least 1% of your colleagues stammer, yet it’s rare that a business considers this when designing standard procedures and ways of working.

STAMMA is the national stammering charity, working across a range of sectors to help them ensure staff who stammer can thrive within the organisation and bring their talents to the business.

Learn which standard procedures may be tricky for your colleagues and customers who stammer, whether it’s working with colleagues, customers or meeting the general public on site, or looking at recruitment practices. In this session, you’ll get practical tips and suggestions for changes you can make that can benefit staff and customers who stammer as well as those with other speech differences. You’ll come away from this session thinking about stammering in a different way!

What you can do when it’s not perfect

What do you do when you have all the right intentions around supporting colleagues, removing their barriers and implementing the perfect adjustments – but we know this isn’t always possible. If only life was that simple!

We will be joined by Becky Elliott, Disability Business Partner Team Lead, BDF, as they talk us through how we focus on what we can do, and how easy that can be.

This event will operate using the ‘Chatham House’ rule.

If you require this content in a different format, contact enquiries@businessdisabilityforum.org.uk.