Majority of young people would disguise their regional accent for a telephone job interview

More than a third admitted to using apps to distort their voice

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More than half of young job seekers said they would disguise their regional accents for a telephone job interview if technology permitted them to do so.

The students and graduate careers app Debut surveyed 1,000 18-23 year olds about job interviews and 57 per cent said it was “fair” to use voice distortion apps during companies’ telephone screening processes, reports the Daily Mail.

Further studies found that 34 per cent of those studied had actually used the apps.

The founder of the app, Charlie Taylor, told the paper: “It was through speaking with students that we realised the concerns about strong regional accents holding candidates back is still very prevalent today. We discussed ways that this apparent barrier could be overcome and voice distortion apps were one of the ideas that were floated.

“Right now, the technology for voice distortion is in its infancy, but I’d say it’s definitely something that will become more common in the future as the technology improves.”

In 2013, over a quarter of British people said they felt discriminated against over an accent. Additionally, 80 per cent of employers admitted to making discriminating decisions based on regional accents according to research by the law firm Peninsular.

The study also found that many of the students believed employers should not look at their social media pages, even if these were made public. Less than a third thought it was their responsibility to make their profiles private, however, one in six had created an ‘employer facing’ page to make a better online impression, reports The Times.