The Trump Campaign has been pushing out ads featuring clips of Joe Biden pausing for extended periods of time in his speeches as an attempt to portray him as mentally impaired and unfit for office. Let me tell you why this is incredibly problematic.
Thread: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1278103771948736514

Joe Biden has a stutter. It presented in his childhood and has been a lifelong challenge for him. Stuttering doesn’t present itself in the same way for every person and isn’t always easily detectable; stuttering is most commonly recognized as repeated words or syllabus but

disfluency includes other disruptions in normal speech patterns, consistent with what we have seen from Joe Biden in the past.
I know this because my 4 year old was diagnosed with a speech disorder (stuttering) a year ago and we receive free speech therapy through

our public school system. Why? Because stuttering is recognized as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act and resources are made available to children with disabilities in our public school system. In “treatment” for stuttering
(I use the term treatment loosely

because there is no real “treatment” for stuttering, just management unless a child grows out of the stutter), we are encouraged to teach our son to stop, slow down, and pause when the stammering presents. Joe Biden’s pauses could also be a method of managing his stutter.

Consider this: which disfluency would be subject to more criticism: a full-blown stammer, or regular interruptions in speech in order to prevent any stuttering? He can either be criticized for stuttering or have his coping mechanism mocked as dementia. Either way,

criticism of his disfluency is Ableism, and it’s not ok.

@TeamTrump is actively mocking Joe Biden using the lowest-hanging fruit. Mocking a disability is disgraceful and unacceptable. These ads are nothing more than playground-style bullying. Shame on you.

I’m not a speech pathologist by any means but I know what it’s like to watch my son get stuck on a word or two while talking to strangers, trying to support him while fighting off my own feelings of embarrassment. We can’t do this to people with disabilities. They need support.

More information on Joe Biden’s stutter: https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/accessibility/471707-how-joe-bidens-gaffes-have-affected-his-campaign-and

Hey @JoeBiden, thanks for giving my son someone like himself to look up to.