Communication at work

Also called Workplace communication adjustments, AAC at work

Meetings, phones and colleagues all assume speech. The adjustments that fix them are cheap, and the law says you can have them.

What it is

Work communication is meetings, phone calls, quick questions across a desk, small talk at the kettle and the interview that came first. Every one of them assumes fluent speech at conversational speed, and a person who uses AAC, stammers, or has unclear speech is quietly excluded from each unless the way it is done changes.

The changes are usually small. The problem is that nobody makes them until they are asked for, and asking feels like admitting something.

Who it can help

Employees, apprentices and job applicants who use AAC, sign, stammer, or have speech that is hard to follow. It also helps people whose speech has changed, after a stroke, with motor neurone disease or with a voice disorder, who want to keep working.

It is less useful for someone who does not yet have a job and needs help getting one; for that, start with Access to Work, which can fund support at interview too.

How it works

The Equality Act 2010 requires an employer to make reasonable adjustments for a disabled worker, and communication adjustments are squarely inside that. See reasonable adjustments for communication. Agendas circulated in advance so answers can be prepared. Questions sent by email rather than sprung in a meeting. A colleague who does not finish sentences. Phone duties swapped for written channels. Extra time at interview.

Access to Work is the government scheme that pays for what an employer would not reasonably fund alone: a communication aid, support worker hours, a British Sign Language interpreter, software. It is a grant, not a loan, and it does not depend on the employer's goodwill.

For the phone specifically, Relay UK lets a person type and read a call, and video relay does the same in BSL. See using the phone.

Getting started

Write down the three moments at work where communication fails most. For each, write the adjustment that would fix it. That list is your reasonable adjustments request; send it to your manager or HR this week in writing, so there is a record.

Apply to Access to Work at the same time. The application is online, the assessment is a phone or video call, and you can ask for it to be done by email.

Add work vocabulary to your device: your job title, your colleagues' names, the products, the phrases you use every day. Quick phrases for "give me a moment to type" and "please send that by email" earn their place fast.

Where to get help

Access to Work via gov.uk is the funding route. Disability Rights UK publishes guides on adjustments and employment rights. The Equality and Human Rights Commission explains the Equality Act duty. STAMMA runs an employment support service for people who stammer. AbilityNet advises on workplace technology. Acas is the route for a dispute that has gone formal.