Making an appointment with the doctor or quickly ordering a pizza, for Berry Branten (38) from Vlijmen it is always a question of whether it will work. He stutters and is therefore often not taken seriously when he calls companies.
“Good, good…” Even before Berry can say good evening, the connection is broken on the other end of the line. He calls a number of companies on Tuesday to show what he experiences every day. “The worst thing that ever happened is that the guy from a pizzeria laughed at me and started imitating me. Then the horn was thrown on it,” he says.
“Many stutterers ignore the telephone.”
Berry likens the conversations to walking across a minefield. “Often you have already formulated in your head what you want to say, but you also know that you will get stuck at a certain moment. You only feel that a second before. But the tension only mounts, causing it to go wrong.”
He now has a thick layer of calluses on his soul, but that does not apply to everyone. “Many stutterers don’t use the phone, because their self-confidence keeps getting knocked over. They become isolated and make different choices in their lives. I know people who have become cleaners instead of teachers, so as not to stutter.”
“We want to make it clear that this group is also there.”
To draw attention to this, Berry has made a video showing how various companies respond to stuttering callers. “That is not meant in a negative way, but to point out the problem to people. They often think that they are being fooled or that there is a bad connection, but we want to make it clear that this group is there too.”
Berry took a course where he learned tricks to control stuttering. Where he used to be unable to pronounce three words fluently, he now dares more.
“I don’t get out much anymore. Others have to muster up the courage for fifteen minutes to pick up the phone. Perhaps that can change if more people realize that there are people who stutter and that they can also make phone calls.”