I can relate as well. My current job, my department consists of two people, myself and my supervisor. My supervisor got cancer and went out on disability for 17 months. I was thrust into his position, I did it. Mai gained the budget, supplies, scheduling, everything and did a good job at it. Came time to fill the position, they hired from outside the company. Only explanation was that I (this is an exact quote) “ … you need to work on your communication skills”. I replied with “I wonder what that’s code for” and almost got fired for that. When interviewing, stutterers make a horrible first impression. They see potential problems with our speech, and think to themselves “let’s just go on to the next person, at least they won’t have that problem”. The only jobs I’ve ever gotten were ones where they were so desperate for employees, they’ll literally hire anyone. Is discriminating against the law, yes, but a good hiring manager can get around that easily. They can cite just about any reason, experience, attitude, age, references.