Frustrated? That’s how 3 million Americans who stutter sometimes feel about navigating life. Now, you can help!

Here’s how you can assist the MSU’s Bias Busters team

If you know something about stuttering, we could use your help.

We are a journalism class at Michigan State University and this month begin work on publishing a book, “100 Questions and Answers About People Who Stutter.” We need allies who have experiences stuttering or who understand it to help us tell the story acurately.

Bias Busters journalism classes have published nearly two dozen books to help people have better conversations with each other. Until now, we have focused on ethnicity and religion, occupations, generations, sexuality and gender identity. Speech disfluency is our first attempt to explain a disability and how others can learn about the people who experience it.

About 1 American out of 100—or 3 million people—stutter. If you know 100 people, odds are you know someone who has stuttered or who still stutters.

Stuttering is more common among children, and adults stutter, too. Do you remember this from President Joe Biden’s Oval Office announcement that he would not seek a second term? “Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as President of the United States, but here I am.”

This guide will be for the 99 people out of 100 who do not stutter. That is a huge audience.

This is the population we always try to serve: People who want to understand the group we describe.

So, how can you help us help others?

If you stutter or stuttering is in your past, we have some college students who will want to interview you. They have one basic question, although they will ask it in different ways: “What questions should be included in the 100 we will answer?” “What do stutterers wish people knew about them?” “How should they be treated?” “How can people help?” “What are the myths and mistakes that bother them?” We want our questions to arise from the voices of stutterers, not from ourselves or the people who do not experience stuttering.

So, we need the allies on whose experience the book’s questions will be based.

Then, we need subject matter experts who can help us write answers and check the guide for accuracy. If your life or your work has exposed you to a cross-section of stutterers, you could be one of these critics.

Bias Busters values include accuracy, authenticity, conciseness and respect. Allies help with every aspect of these books, which will be available online and in print.

If you think you can help us or want to make suggestions, please email me. I am a journalism professor at Michigan State University and founder of the series. My university email is [email protected].

Thank you.