Stuttering is a speech disorder influencing over 70 million people worldwide, including 13 million in China. It causes low self-esteem among other detrimental effects on people who stutter (PwS). Although prior work has explored approaches to assist PwS, they primarily focused on western contexts. In our formative study, we found unique practices and challenges among Chinese PwS. We then iteratively designed an online tool, CoPracTter, to support Chinese PwS practicing speaking fluency with 1) targeted stress-inducing practice scenarios, 2) real-time speech indicators, and 3) personalized timely feedback from the community. We further conducted a seven-day deployment study (N=11) to understand how participants utilized these key features. To our knowledge, it is the first time such a prototype was designed and tested for a long time with multiple PwS participants online simultaneously. Results indicate that personalized practice with targeted scenarios and timely feedback from a supportive community assisted PwS in speaking fluently, staying positive, and facing similar real-life circumstances.

翻译：口吃是一种语言障碍，影响全球超过7000万人，其中包括中国的1300万人。它导致口吃者（PwS）自尊心低下，并带来其他不利影响。尽管先前研究已探索帮助口吃者的方法，但这些方法主要聚焦于西方情境。在我们的形成性研究中，我们发现中国口吃者存在独特的实践与挑战。随后，我们迭代设计了一款在线工具CoPracTter，通过以下方式支持中国口吃者练习口语流利度：1）针对性的压力诱导练习场景，2）实时语音指标，以及3）来自社区的个性化即时反馈。我们进一步开展了一项为期七天的部署研究（N=11），以了解参与者如何利用这些关键功能。据我们所知，这是首次针对多个口吃者参与者同时在线长时间设计和测试此类原型。结果表明，通过针对性场景的个性化练习和支持性社区的即时反馈，口吃者能够更流利地说话、保持积极心态，并应对相似的真实生活情境。