ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the body of literature regarding the impact of student loan debt on people with communicative disorders. It is written through an autoethnographic lens in order to shed light on the author's experiences as a stuttering adjunct professor with defaulted student loans. The chapter helps readers gain an in-depth understanding of how the narrow communication methods of Department of Education (ED) loan servicers can cause borrowers with communicative disorders to default on their student loans. The courts are divided on whether student loans are considered to be consumer debt. Assuming they are, student loans are the second largest category of consumer debt behind home mortgages. People who stutter represent a small portion of our total population in the United States. According to the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, roughly three million Americans stutter and the majority of these are male. The chapter concludes with one recommendation for student loan servicers and higher-education funding policy.
