Gareth Walkom, a UK National and resident of Ghent in Belgium, has had a stutter since he was six years old and now creates virtual reality (VR) tools for people like him. The tech startup in Ghent starts its testing on International Stuttering Awareness Day (22nd October). The 22nd of October is for people who stutter, and here’s why you should listen to them.
Speaking situations such as a job interview, presentation, and public speaking can be uncomfortable for many people. However, for 1% of the worldwide population who stutter, these situations are intensified, resulting in avoidance of conversations, relationships and being denied jobs due to a difference in how they speak.
Since 2015, Gareth has been researching how VR can be used to benefit people like him. The research has shown positive results, highlighting decreased anxiety, improved detection of speech behaviors, and that it can be a great tool for speech therapists and researchers. In 2018, Gareth moved from the UK to Belgium to pursue a Doctorate at KU Leuven in a different field in VR. Due to the increasing need for his previous research, Gareth dropped out of his Ph.D. to transform his research on VR for speech disorders so that anyone could utilize it.
“The more people I met in the speech disorder community, the more I realized how much VR is needed. The realism kicks in when you hear others talk about self-harm and suicide. At this point, I knew that I needed to take action, so I turned my full focus to creating withVR.”
On International Stuttering Awareness Day 2020, Gareth founded withVR to better prepare people with speech disorders for real-life speaking situations using VR. withVR strives to ensure that anyone can use their voice whenever they like, no matter their difference.
One year on, withVR is collaborating with 70+ clinics, labs, and hospitals from 20+ countries worldwide in developing tools for speech therapists, researchers, and people with a speech disorder.
withVR has received support from Start It @KBC, the BlueHealth Innovation Center, and Google for Startups in assisting withVR to better develop for the speech disorder community.
“What we’re doing is enabling people with speech disorders to practice a variety of speaking situations, customize them in real-time, and have a safe space to speak. Our research highlights positive results, which means that we have reached the milestone to start testing our solution for speech therapists.” The milestone marks withVR’s first anniversary and raises great awareness for International Stuttering Awareness Day.
The solution that withVR is testing is for speech therapists, providing the speech therapist with a VR toolbox to totally customize speaking situations and control them in real-time. Using the toolbox, a speech therapist can safely teleport their client into VR, design their own speaking situation, and practice for real-life scenarios. The testing will observe how speech therapists can benefit from the tool, and find insights before the clinical trials begin next year.
Awareness Days are important for everyone. We have these days so we can become educated on what we can do in supporting others. International Stuttering Awareness Day is a great example of that, where we can all improve how we act the next time we experience someone stuttering. Rather than encouraging a person who stutters to change and speak more fluently, perhaps it’s us who need to change the way we respond to those who stutter. After all, it’s just a different way of speaking.
The innovative technology from withVR is seeking more participants for their testing. If you have a speech disorder, are a speech therapist or researcher, you can try withVR by contacting hello@withvr.app.
