Listener Attitudes Towards Individuals with Voice Disorders

Objective: Voice defines a person’s identity. Teachers are professional voice users and about 10-18% experience a voice disorder at any given time. Voice disorder negatively impacts listener perceptions. The current study aims to identify student attitudes towards teachers with voice disorders. Specifically, the aims include: (a) if a voice disorder will lend to a negative perception towards individuals with voice problems, and (b) if the perception of individuals with a voice disorder will be different between a teacher and a non-teacher. Methods: Six voice samples, each lasting a minute long was obtained for three different female speakers to represent non-dysphonic, mildly dysphonic and a moderately severe dysphonic voice. Twenty-six high school students (including males- 4, females- 22) in the 9th and 10th grades served as participants. All participants listened to two different sets of voice recordings. During each set, participants listened to three randomized voice types. For the second set of recordings, the participants were asked to imagine the voice was that of their teacher. For each voice recording in each set, the participants completed a semantic differential questionnaire to rate the personality of the speaker based on the voice they heard. The semantic differential questionnaire included 12 differential rates on a 100mm visual analog scale. Additionally, for the second set of recordings, participants completed a series of open-ended questions to assess the ease of listening to and the perceived approachability of the voice. Results and Conclusions: Descriptive data analysis indicated a general difference in listener perceptions between a mild and moderately severe voice sample. Participants perceived the moderately severe voice sample to be a sick, boring, sad, quiet and scared irrespective of a teacher or non-teacher. The data were consistent for the moderately severe sample on open-ended questions as well. Participants reported they would not feel comfortable approaching the teacher or asking the teacher to repeat information; additionally, the students reported the sample as difficult to listen to. Preliminary descriptive analysis of the data revealed that the teachers’ voice quality influences students’ perceptions of their teacher. Data from this study can lead to identifying appropriate measures in the preventive care of a teacher’s voice