Editing Stuttering (section)

==Society and culture==

===In popular culture===
{{See also|Stuttering in popular culture|List of stutterers}}

===Stuttering community===
Many countries have regular events and activities to bring people who stutter together for mutual support. These events take place at regional, national, and international levels. At a regional level, there may be stuttering support or chapter groups that look to provide a place for people who stutter in the local area to meet, discuss and learn from each other.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stammering Groups {{!}} STAMMA |url=https://stamma.org/connect/local-groups |access-date=2023-07-23 |website=stamma.org |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Local NSA Chapters {{!}} Stuttering Support Groups |url=https://westutter.org/chapters/ |access-date=2023-07-23 |website=National Stuttering Association |language=en-US}}</ref>

At a national level, stuttering organizations host conferences. Conferences vary in their focus and scope; some focus on the latest research developments,<ref>https://www.stutteringhelp.org/research-incidence-and-prevalance#:~:text=In%20a%20recent%20conference%20on%20stuttering%20sponsored,(d)%20genetics%2C%20(e)%20stressors%2C%20(f)%20concomitant%20disorders%2C</ref> some focus on stuttering and the arts,<ref>https://www.westutter.org/conference#:~:text=For%20decades%2C%20the%20National%20Stuttering,a%20kid%20or%20an%20adult!&text=Here's%20what%20you%20can%20look,of%20people%20who%20get%20it.</ref> and others simply look to provide a space for stutterers to come together.<ref>https://www.westutter.org/conference#:~:text=For%20decades%2C%20the%20National%20Stuttering,a%20kid%20or%20an%20adult!&text=Here's%20what%20you%20can%20look,of%20people%20who%20get%20it.</ref><ref>https://www.westutter.org/our-events#:~:text=Special%20events%20like%20the%20annual%20conference%20bring,valuable%20tools%20for%20navigating%20the%20stuttering%20journey.</ref>

There are two international meetings of stutterers. The [[International Stuttering Association]] World Congress primarily focuses on individuals who stutter. Meanwhile, the Joint World Congress on Stuttering and Cluttering brings together academics, researchers, speech-language pathologists, as well as people who stutter or clutter, with a focus on research and treatments for stuttering.{{fact|date=February 2025}}

=== Historic advocacy and self-help ===
Self-help and advocacy organisations for people who stammer have reportedly been in existence since the 1920s.&nbsp;In 1921, a Philadelphia-based attorney who stammered, J. Stanley Smith, established the Kingsley Club.&nbsp;<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Thurber |first1=James |title=Stammerers' Club |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1930/05/03/stammerers-club |magazine=The New Yorker |date=25 April 1930 }}</ref> Designed to support people with a stammer in the Philadelphia area, the club took inspiration for its name from [[Charles Kingsley]].&nbsp;Kingsley, a nineteenth-century English social reformer and author of ''Westward Ho!'' and ''The Water Babies'', had a stammer himself.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.7135/upo9781843317562.019 |chapter=Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, ''1830–1882'' |title=Perceptions of the Press in Nineteenth-Century British Periodicals |date=2012 |pages=261–299 |isbn=978-1-84331-756-2 }}</ref>

Whilst Kingsley himself did not appear to recommend self-help or advocacy groups for people who stammer, the Kingsley Club promoted a positive mental attitude to support its members in becoming confident speakers, in a similar way discussed by Charles Kingsley in ''Irrationale of Speech''.{{fact|date=February 2025}}

Other support groups for people who stammer began to emerge in the first half of the twentieth century. In 1935 a Stammerer's Club was established in Melbourne, Australia, by a Mr H. Collin of Thornbury.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1935-05-23 |title=STAMMERERS' CLUB. |work=Sydney Morning Herald |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17146929 |access-date=2023-08-01}}</ref>&nbsp;At the time of its formation it had 68 members. The club was formed in response to the tragic case of a man from Sydney who "sought relief from the effects of stammering in suicide".&nbsp;As well as providing self-help, this club adopted an advocacy role with the intention of appealing to the Government to provide special education and to fund research into the causes of stammering.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1936-10-10 |title=THE STAMMERERS' CLUB OF QUEENSLAND. |work=Cairns Post |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41779262}}</ref><ref>''Bermuda Reporter''{{full|date=February 2025}}</ref>

=== Disability rights movement ===

Some people who stutter, and are part of the [[disability rights movement]], have begun to embrace their stuttering voices as an important part of their identity.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Did I Stutter?|url = http://didistutter.org/|website = Did I Stutter?|access-date = 2015-10-05|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151006092633/http://www.didistutter.org/|archive-date = 2015-10-06}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title = How To Stutter More|url = http://stuttermore.tumblr.com/|website = stuttermore.tumblr.com|access-date = 2015-10-05|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151029165325/http://stuttermore.tumblr.com/|archive-date = 2015-10-29}}</ref> In July 2015 the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) announced the launch of the Defence Stammering Network to support and champion the interests of British military personnel and MOD civil servants who stammer and to raise awareness of the condition.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/defence-stammering-network-launched |title=Defence Stammering Network launched |access-date=2015-07-25 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150825135116/https://www.gov.uk/government/news/defence-stammering-network-launched |archive-date=2015-08-25 }}</ref>

Although the [[Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990]] intended to cover speech disabilities, it was not explicitly named and lawsuits increasingly did not cover stuttering as a disability. In 2009, additional amendments were made to the ADA, and it now specifically covers speech disorders.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Weiner |first1=Charles |last2=Tetnowski |first2=John A. |title=Stuttering Discrimination Under the Law: Here's a look at how the law applies. |journal=The ASHA Leader |date=July 2016 |volume=21 |issue=7 |pages=52–57 |doi=10.1044/leader.FTR2.21072016.52 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Americans with Disabilities Act: How it relates to stuttering |url=https://www.stutteringtreatment.org/blog/the-americans-with-disabilities-act-what-it-means-to-people-who-stutter |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=www.stutteringtreatment.org |language=en}}</ref>

=== Stuttering pride ===
{{Main|Stuttering pride}}
[[Stuttering pride]] (or stuttering advocacy) is a [[social movement]] repositioning stuttering as a valuable and respectable way of speaking. The movement seeks to counter the societal narratives in which temporal and societal expectations dictate how communication takes place.<ref name="Stammering Pride and Prejudice">{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=Patrick |last2=Constantino |first2=Christopher |last3=Simpson |first3=Sam |title=Stammering Pride and Prejudice: Difference Not Defect |date=2019 |publisher=J & R Press Limited |isbn=978-1-907826-36-8 |oclc=1121135480 }}{{pn|date=February 2025}}</ref> In this sense, the stuttering pride movement challenges the pervasive societal narrative of stuttering as a defect and instead positions stuttering as a valuable and respectable way of speaking in its own right. The movement encourages stutterers to take pride in their unique speech patterns and in what stuttering can tell us about the world. It also advocates for societal adjustments to allow stutterers equal access to education and employment opportunities, and addresses how this may impact [[stuttering therapy]].<ref name="Stammering Pride and Prejudice"/>