Mathew Yaworski, Employment Advocacy Coordinator for the Canadian Stuttering Association, shares his advice on determining the inclusivity of potential employers in Canada.

I am a Person Who Stutters (PWS). Are there employers who are better than others at recruiting and supporting people like me?

When Dimitri was a young boy growing up, his stutter prevented him from getting a word into many conversations. He would grunt with frustration and make a fist with his hand anytime his stutter would cut off his sentences. The words were on his mind, but nothing would come out of his mouth except for a stammer. His parents tried many solutions to help their son – taking him to speech therapy, speech exercises – you name it. The tactics didn't help, and the family, who loved their son deeply and only wanted the best for him, had to accept that Dimitri would have to live with his stutter.

Hi CSA! My name is Jordan Bloom, and I am so beyond excited to join the Board of Directors as the Marketing and Communications Coordinator for the Canadian Stuttering Association. I’m currently based in Toronto, where I work at a creative advertising agency as an Art Director, helping form the big ideas that serve as the basis of integrated campaigns. I have a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing Management from the University of Guelph, and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Art Direction from Humber College.

Hello Canadian Stuttering Association (CSA) members and our wider community. I am your newest Employment Advocacy Coordinator. I am a life-long stutterer. While the severity of my disfluency has improved with the benefit of therapy, my stutter remains.  

One of our members, Peter Holleley, was in a serious human rights dispute with the Landlord Tenants Board (LTB) which he then escalated to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO). CSA is supporting him and reaching out to see if there are other PWS in Ontario or the rest of the country who have had problems with the LTB, or any negative experience of being in a legal system where stuttering is not accommodated for. He is also looking for legal advice from a lawyer or paralegal.

Tess Casher is a young Canadian Rhodes Scholar who moved to England last year to attend Oxford University. A person who stutters, she has written a Young Adult book about a teen girl who also stutters. The novel, Sleuths in Skates, is a delightful and highly readable book suitable for ages 8-16. The protagonist, Ingrid Nielsen, is a fourteen year old girl whose family has moved from B.C. to a small Ontario town.