Staff at Worcester’s Students’ Union (SU) recently took a vow of silence to raise awareness of speech conditions.

The action was part of the ‘A Little Less Conversation, More Action Please’ campaign, launched by the University of Worcester’s Disabled Students’ Network.

Christian Wilson, a third-year student undertaking a Sports Coaching Science with Disability Sport degree, conceived the initiative.

Mr Wilson, who has verbal dyspraxia, serves as the chair of both the Disabled Students’ Network and the British Sign Language Society.

Mr Wilson, who communicates by using assistive technology, said: "When I was younger, I wanted to be like everyone else.

"I wanted to have a voice and a social life, but it got to a point in my life that I knew that wouldn’t be possible, I would never be the same, and I’d always be different."

He added: "That’s when I decided that if I can’t be like my friends, my friends will have to act like me, and that’s how the idea came about."

On the day of action, SU staffers communicated using text-to-speech software for half of their working day, handling everything from formal meetings to casual office chat.

Mr Wilson added: "My nephew Oscar absolutely loves using my text to speech software, he’s completely amazed by it and often types on it himself."

Al Linforth, president of Worcester’s Students’ Union, said: "From 8am until 12pm the entire SU staff team have been taking part in this challenge and using text to speech software to communicate for everything from our meetings to just having a chat in the office.

"There are so many different types of assistive technology, but I’ve never used text to speech software, so I’ve never realised how hard it is to quickly type along to a conversation.

"If you don’t type fast enough and press play the conversation has moved on, and you’ve missed your chance to speak so it’s important to have that experience of that person so you can empathise with them."

According to recent statistics, more than a fifth of students studying at the University of Worcester have a declared disability.