Sheffield is holding its first Dysarthria Awareness Day

The University of Sheffield has established the first ever National Dysarthria Day to raise awareness of the condition.

Sheffield has launched its first national dysarthria awareness day for 10 May. The day will involve stalls and activities to help the public understand what it’s like to live and communicate with Dysarthria and help them better understand the condition.

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) also showed strong support for the campaign, encouraging the student-led initiative. This collaboration between students, faculty and professional organizations highlights the growing momentum behind Dysarthria Awareness Day.

Dr Caroline Haw from the University of Sheffield Human Communication Sciences said: “People with dysarthria have very poor experiences of communication – they are assumed to be drunk/incapacitated, they are talked down to.

Communication is a fundamental human right – it is not acceptable for people to be discriminated against or receive unfavorable treatment when they have dysarthria. We hope that by sharing the stories and experiences of people with dysarthria, we will increase public knowledge and awareness and ultimately improve people’s life experiences.

A lot of people want to understand, but they just don’t have the basic awareness of how they can communicate with people with dysarthria.”

Dysarthria is often caused by conditions that affect your brain or nerves and some medications. It weakens the muscles we use for speech, meaning speech difficulties. It can also make it difficult to control the volume of the voice, making someone speak louder or quieter than they intended.

The university runs a clinic for clients who no longer qualify for NHS treatment, provides long-term speech therapy and manages students under the guidance of qualified professionals.
The day itself will feature interactive booths in the School of Medicine Foyer and The Wave.

Dr Haw said: “The RCSLT are fully behind the campaign and have encouraged us to start the fire with direct action. I think they believe that member action is sometimes more powerful than them telling us what to do.”