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Spokenpunk is a term for use by those with any sort of speech impediment. This includes things like lisps and speech sound disorders, especially those that are often prescribed speech therapy. While this can include those with stutters, I the coiner will admit that we are not as familiar with that community, so we leave it up to the individual to decide if this term applies to them.
Spokenpunk supports the idea that there is no one “right” way to say something. It rejects the idea that, in a world full of accents and dialects, there are still certain sounds that are “wrong” and need to be aggressively corrected. At the same time, personal autonomy in deciding whether to seek speech therapy should always be respected.
Spokenpunk believes that as long as the person you’re talking to knows what you mean, you said it right, regardless of what sounds you used to say it.
Spokenpunk encourages working for a world where it is common practice to have patience with others when speaking to them, where people are not teased for saying things “wrong”, where it I understood that others might have different ways of speaking from you, and where these differences are celebrated.
We made this term because, as someone with multiple speech impediments, it has always made us angry that people have always seemed to care more about how we say words than what those words actually mean. It becomes very frustrating to be asked to say certain words that we have a lot of trouble with, just so the other person can laugh at how we mispronounce them. We were honestly surprised that a post like this didn’t already exist, considering we can’t possibly be the only ones with this experience.
