This article by Dr Valerie Fridland discusses some of the ways diverse voices are discriminated against.

I hear PWS say (and I've said this) that the listener would do better to see stuttering as a type of accent. But we can't forget that accents aren't truly neutral in society. People, even unconsciously, make assumptions about "non-native" accents, which has huge impacts on people.

I don't necessarily think the concept of 'the listener can see stuttering like you would an accent' is a bad one - it can be helpful to reframe stuttering to a listener (no need to treat me special because of my stutter, just talk and listen to me like you would anyone else), but let's not forget that stutterers aren't the only ones facing discrimination due to how we sound.

I'd honestly love to see people who stutter and racial/ethnic minorities in America who have "non-native" accents team up and bring awareness together. There's enough overlap, too, to platform people that fall into both categories.

Would love to hear other people’s thoughts on this too.

Here’s the URL in case the link above didn’t work: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/language-in-the-wild/202307/the-hidden-cost-of-having-an-accent