Gareth Walkom joins Uri for a conversation

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BIO:
Gareth Walkom is originally from Basingstoke in the UK and now resides in the beautiful city of Ghent in Belgium. Gareth is a proud person who stutters and leads the way in utilizing how people who stutter and speech pathologists can benefit by using virtual reality as a tool. Working on this topic since 2015, Gareth studied for a bachelor’s degree in Digital Media Technology at Nottingham Trent University, using knowledge from the degree to create a VR application to be used in stuttering. He further developed this application by studying for a master’s degree in Medical Product Design, specializing in combining eye-tracking with VR. The new and improved application could measure eye behaviors such as blinks, eye closures, and fixations. The results indicated that VR could decrease anxiety levels and measure stuttering behaviors, such as those of the eyes. His research has shown that VR has enormous potential to be used as a tool in stuttering, where people who stutter can practice speaking in a safe, controllable place. Since then, Gareth’s work has been featured on the BBC, Independent, Guardian, various TV shows, and podcasts. In Gareth’s spare time, he enjoys attending and speaking at conferences, Belgian beer, and playing unicycle hockey.