A Dysfluency Manifesto

en
April 2024
*
Version 1
150
signatories
https://files.stutteringcommons.org/manifesto-full.m4a
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
es

Damos la bienvenida a la tartamudez en todas sus formas, frecuencias e intersecciones, reconociendo que todos tartamudeamos de diferentes maneras. Colectivamente, deseamos un espacio (y tiempo) para que las personas con disfluencias y sus aliados exploren, celebren, estudien y documenten las diferencias vocales.

Somos colaboradores con intereses en promover el habla disfluente como un valor estético y expresivo en una cultura que demanda rapidez, eficiencia y fluidez en la voz. Muchos de nosotros somos personas que tartamudean en su habla. Vemos nuestra habla (y la tuya también) como hermosa en todas sus expresiones voluntarias e involuntarias. Algunos de nosotros hemos aprendido muchas cosas al trabajar con terapeutas del habla y lenguaje; algunos de nosotros hemos sido traumatizados por ese mismo trabajo. Algunos de nosotros estamos trabajando hacia una revisión radical de los enfoques terapéuticos de la tartamudez a través de conversaciones y diálogos que afirmen y acepten la tartamudez. En nuestras colaboraciones (pasadas, presentes y futuras), desafiamos la primacía de las expectativas biomédicas sobre el habla fluida. Amamos y celebramos la diversidad de patrones de habla, las pausas en la voz, la comunicación y el pensamiento que las disfluencias introducen en la conversación, y sostenemos esas conversaciones a través de un diálogo interdisciplinario continuo.

Nuestro objetivo es producir recursos accesibles y sostenibles que generen nuevas comprensiones de las disfluencias del habla y un sentido transformador de pertenencia para quienes hablan con disfluencias.

Valoramos fundamentalmente a aquellos con un habla disfluente y voces con discapacidades, invitando a individuos, comunidades, académicos, activistas, artistas y terapeutas a un diálogo compartido sobre cómo experimentamos, entendemos e interpretamos las disfluencias. Desafiamos los modelos médicos, las normas sociales y las prácticas discriminatorias que ven la disfluencia en términos de déficit, y reivindicamos la tartamudez como una forma legítima y valorada de variación del habla dentro de un paisaje sonoro de diferencias y diversidad vocal. Nuestros recursos en curso crean conexiones vitales entre la investigación académica, la práctica creativa y la accesibilidad e inclusión pública.

Honramos los sonidos ricos y variados del habla tartamudeada asegurándonos de que se escuchen y experimenten dentro de una cultura emergente de la tartamudez.

Stuttering Commons entiende la cultura de la tartamudez como el potencial generativo y creativo de la tartamudez, viéndola como inherentemente valiosa. Una cultura de la tartamudez produce y amplifica más disfluencias y crea una comunidad internacional. Apreciamos la cacofonía y las rupturas en el arte, que contribuyen a cómo entendemos y valoramos el habla disfluente. Fomentamos este sentido de cultura a través de conversaciones internacionales en arte, educación, terapia, ciencia y experiencia vivida. Una cultura de la tartamudez valora los recursos educativos, publicaciones, podcasts, conferencias, eventos, exposiciones y archivos digitales. Reconocemos el patrimonio cultural de la tartamudez y sus contribuciones contemporáneas, y añadimos a este paisaje sonoro de voces divergentes. Nos deleitamos en todos los lugares donde aparece la tartamudez: la conversación, la discusión, las bromas, los cómics, los poemas, la entrevista, la historia, el diálogo, el monólogo, la canción, el escenario y el aula.

Invitamos a individuos, académicos, activistas, artistas y terapeutas a un diálogo progresivo y emancipador sobre cómo experimentamos, entendemos, representamos y documentamos la disfluencia en todas sus intersecciones para apoyar la acción colectiva y el cambio social.

Nuestro objetivo es deconstruir, desestabilizar y romper el privilegio de la fluidez a través del aprovechamiento del potencial generativo de la disfluencia en todas las culturas, para apoyar la construcción compartida de un mundo inclusivo y la movilización del conocimiento. Nos esforzamos por construir y sostener un futuro disfluente a través del orgullo de la tartamudez y la diversidad del habla. Invitamos a aquellos con voces disfluentes, discapacitadas, neurodivergentes y minoritarias a futuras colaboraciones que aboguen por una pertenencia transformadora.

“A dysfluency manifesto” [text and audio] © 2024 by Stuttering Commons is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International CC BY-SA 4.0

Read in English by Maria Stuart, Daniel Martin, Conor Foran, Sam Simpson, Patrick Campbell and Joshua St. Pierre.

French translation by Christine Tournier-Badbré, CC BY-SA 4.0. Portuguese translation by Sofia Fernandes, proofreading by Igor Lôbo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Spanish translation by Angelica Barnabe, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sign Our manifesto

Thank you for signing the manifesto and joining us in disrupting dysfluency privilege.
Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Name Surname
Country
04/2024
Maddie Dempsey
Canada
06/2025
Trevor Moran
United States
05/2025
Riley McGuire
United States
05/2025
Tess Casher
Canada
05/2025
Scott Oldenburg
United States
04/2025
Asa Ito
Japan
04/2025
Mark Noonan
Ireland
03/2025
Shona Morrison
United Kingdom
03/2025
Theresa Illmer
Switzerland
03/2025
Yelco Martinez Marin
Spain
03/2025
Daniel Costa
Portugal
01/2025
Maroula Perisanidi
United Kingdom
01/2025
Bryan Castro
United States
12/2024
Luiza Aguiar
Brazil
12/2024
Andreea Mihai
Romania
12/2024
Barry Yeoman
United States
12/2024
David Liestman
United States
11/2024
Nicola Cleary
Ireland
11/2024
Kael Kropp
Canada
10/2024
Thomas Reaney
Ireland
10/2024
Puneet Singh
India
10/2024
Owen Henry
Ireland
10/2024
TJ Traver
United States
10/2024
Caterina Stamou
Greece
10/2024
Laura Lascău
Romania
10/2024
Cath Buckley
United Kingdom
10/2024
Amy Stewart
United Kingdom
10/2024
Robyn Braun
Canada
10/2024
Laura Simonsen
United Kingdom
10/2024
Camilla Turnbull
Canada
10/2024
Alex Benevento
United States
09/2024
Christine Tournier
France
09/2024
Willemijn Bolks
Netherlands
09/2024
Síabhra Durcan
Ireland
09/2024
Joanna Medina
Peru
09/2024
Hannah Valentine
United States
09/2024
Suzanne Tubman
Ireland
09/2024
Clara Burn
United Kingdom
09/2024
Ashley Cubberly
United States
09/2024
Satrio Rizki Dharma
Indonesia
09/2024
Jaqueline Carmona
Portugal
09/2024
Christine Simpson
United Kingdom
09/2024
Martha Horrocks
United States
09/2024
Oliver East
United Kingdom
09/2024
Sunilkumar Bombale
India
09/2024
Lily Whitmarsh
United Kingdom
09/2024
Philippa Barker
United Kingdom
09/2024
Mariana Almeida Borsari Ramos
Brazil
09/2024
Mandy Rodstrom
United States
09/2024
Joe Murphy
United Kingdom
09/2024
Iván Mercado
Argentina
09/2024
Ben Goldstein
United States
09/2024
Megan Aiken
Canada
09/2024
Luke Wyland
United States
08/2024
Charis St. Pierre
Canada
08/2024
Caleb Derven
Ireland
08/2024
Corey Snelgrove
Canada
08/2024
Alexander Harrison
United Kingdom
08/2024
Ananya B
India
08/2024
Louise Escher
Switzerland
07/2024
Christian Jeremiah
Nigeria
07/2024
Derek Daniels
United States
07/2024
Renee McBeth
Canada
07/2024
Dani Jorgensen-Skakum
Canada
07/2024
Julie Holmes
United Kingdom
07/2024
Javor Stein
United States
06/2024
Fiona Ryan
Ireland
06/2024
Nina Reeves
United States
06/2024
J Scott Yaruss
United States
06/2024
Cathy Soreny
United Kingdom
06/2024
Hannah Thomas
United Kingdom
06/2024
Claire Bull
United Kingdom
06/2024
Joshua Gentry-Bromwich
United Kingdom
06/2024
Andrea Callegaro
Italy
06/2024
Kate Morley
United Kingdom
06/2024
Stephen Greene
Ireland
06/2024
Jen Ryder
United Kingdom
06/2024
Andrew McFarland
United Kingdom
05/2024
Michael Phillips
United Kingdom
05/2024
Anita McKiernan
United Kingdom
05/2024
Emilie Petty
United Kingdom
05/2024
Jenny Durkin
United Kingdom
05/2024
Janet O'Neill
United Kingdom
05/2024
Helen Brockett
United Kingdom
05/2024
Megan Hart
United Kingdom
05/2024
Julia Henly
United Kingdom
05/2024
Faye Townsend
United Kingdom
05/2024
Jenna McKay
United Kingdom
05/2024
Kerith McNally
United Kingdom
05/2024
Jen Roche
United Kingdom
05/2024
Priya Is
Australia
05/2024
Bernd Hldebrandt
Canada
05/2024
Jeff Suarez
United Kingdom
05/2024
Nora Trench Bowles
Ireland
05/2024
Sandra Okiki
Kenya
05/2024
Edel O'Dea
Ireland
05/2024
Iain Wilkie
United Kingdom
05/2024
Cameron Raynes
Australia
05/2024
Eddy Janssens
Belgium
05/2024
Vanina Mino
Argentina
04/2024
'Honest Speech' is a poem about stuttering performed by Erin Schick at National Poetry Slam 2014 in Oakland, California. 
Honest Speech
No items found.
In 2016, Alda Villiljós collaborated with Málbjörg, the National Stuttering Association in Iceland to photograph people in the moment of stuttering. 
Stuttering pride is starting to mature. No longer a hushed whisper that might evaporate if spoken aloud, the social movement of stuttering pride has turned to root and flower.
A postcard design by Conor Foran featuring a quote taken from Joshua St Pierre's 2017 article on the blog Did I Stutter?
Patrick Campbell
Alternative voices was a series of continuity announcements on Channel 4 by individuals with a variety of communication differences. They were released and used in December 2013. The announcements involve: Kate, who is an Augmentative and alternative communication device user; Matthew, a person who stammers; Jess Thom, who has Tourette’s; Alex, a deaf actor who uses both speech and British Sign Language (BSL); and Luke, who has Tourette’s.
Alternative Voices
No items found.
Patrick Campbell
Alternative voices was a series of continuity announcements on Channel 4 by individuals with a variety of communication differences. They were released and used in December 2013. The announcements involve: Kate, who is an Augmentative and alternative communication device user; Matthew, a person who stammers; Jess Thom, who has Tourette’s; Alex, a deaf actor who uses both speech and British Sign Language (BSL); and Luke, who has Tourette’s.
Alternative Voices
No items found.
https://files.stutteringcommons.org/soundscape-of-vocal-difference-and-diversity.m4a
Patrick Campbell
My Generation by the WHO was released in October 1965. It was written by guitarist and song-writer Pete Townshend. The personnel involved in the recording were: Roger Daltrey, lead vocals; Pete Townshend, electric guitar and backing vocals; John Entwistle, bass guitar and backing vocals; and Keith Moon, drums. A range of stories exist as to the reason for Roger Daltrey’s distinctive staccato delivery. Producer Shel Talmy called it "one of those happy accidents". At first, the BBC banned the song, concerned it would be offensive to those who stutter. They reversed this decision after its initial success. The song is often included in lists of the greatest rock songs of all time.
My Generation
No items found.
Patrick Campbell
My Generation by the WHO was released in October 1965. It was written by guitarist and song-writer Pete Townshend. The personnel involved in the recording were: Roger Daltrey, lead vocals; Pete Townshend, electric guitar and backing vocals; John Entwistle, bass guitar and backing vocals; and Keith Moon, drums. A range of stories exist as to the reason for Roger Daltrey’s distinctive staccato delivery. Producer Shel Talmy called it "one of those happy accidents". At first, the BBC banned the song, concerned it would be offensive to those who stutter. They reversed this decision after its initial success. The song is often included in lists of the greatest rock songs of all time.
My Generation
No items found.
https://files.stutteringcommons.org/song.m4a
Performed by artist and composer JJJJJerome Ellis in March 2024, Voice and Breath bridged the worlds of stammering, music, art and performance in the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, London. 
Voice and Breath
No items found.
Stuttering may give us special insight into language by breaking it open and exposing its seams.
Who We Are is an audio love letter to the diversity that exists within the stuttering community. It aims to represent as many different languages, accents and voices as possible.
Who We Are
Voices of the Stuttering Community
Stammering Pride Against Prejudice was a conference held in City Lit in September 2023, hosted by Sam Simpson and Patrick Campbell. Intersectionality and stammering culture were among some of the topics explored. It was a follow up to the landmark conference and publication, Stammering Pride and Prejudice.
What does good speech therapy look like? Should you focus on spontaneity over fluency? "It's ok to stutter" can be a powerful message.
My goal is no longer to achieve fluency—because why should I have to?
Let's find new words
Kaitlin Naughten
Conor Foran
Whether people who stammer consider themselves disabled or not does not stop them from being disabled by society. As long as society views stammered speech as inferior, they will be disabled by societal norms.
Stammering Pride and Prejudice: Difference not Defect
Patrick Campbell
Christopher Constantino
Sam Simpson
Conor Foran
Whether people who stammer consider themselves disabled or not does not stop them from being disabled by society. As long as society views stammered speech as inferior, they will be disabled by societal norms.
Stammering Pride and Prejudice: Difference not Defect
Patrick Campbell
Christopher Constantino
Sam Simpson
https://files.stutteringcommons.org/dysfluent-speech-and-disabled-voices.m4a
Patrick Campbell
This is a video clip of the House of Commons during the 2012 Autumn Statement. It shows Ed Balls, a person who stammers and politician, speaking and being jeered and mocked for a moment of stammering. The Autumn Statement is an important part of a political calendar in the UK. The political party in power presents their monetary policy for the year. The opposition party then has a chance to ask questions and critique the policy. Ed Balls was in opposition government and the person, as shadow chancellor of the Ex-Chequer, in the role to give the main critique. He is a person who stammers and he stammered during his repost. The main party in governing power laughed and mocked him. Ed Balls has became an active advocate of people who stammer in the UK over the years after these experiences.
Patrick Campbell
This is a video clip of the House of Commons during the 2012 Autumn Statement. It shows Ed Balls, a person who stammers and politician, speaking and being jeered and mocked for a moment of stammering. The Autumn Statement is an important part of a political calendar in the UK. The political party in power presents their monetary policy for the year. The opposition party then has a chance to ask questions and critique the policy. Ed Balls was in opposition government and the person, as shadow chancellor of the Ex-Chequer, in the role to give the main critique. He is a person who stammers and he stammered during his repost. The main party in governing power laughed and mocked him. Ed Balls has became an active advocate of people who stammer in the UK over the years after these experiences.
https://files.stutteringcommons.org/demands-speed-efficiency-and-fluency-in-voice.m4a
Paul Aston is a figurative painter working in Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He explores the experience of stammering through paintings that celebrate stammering as just the way people speak.
Patrick Campbell
Willemijn Bolks is a stutterer and creative in the Netherlands. She has been making comics for the past few years to help herself and others understand the experience of stammering. She shares her comics on Instagram and has an online shop too. She shared this comic on International Stammering Awareness Day in October 2021. It shows Willemijn in a green top, in a variety of speaking poses saying “I st-st-st-st-stutter. I create long silences and I am allowed to take up that space.”
Just Stutter
No items found.
Patrick Campbell
Willemijn Bolks is a stutterer and creative in the Netherlands. She has been making comics for the past few years to help herself and others understand the experience of stammering. She shares her comics on Instagram and has an online shop too. She shared this comic on International Stammering Awareness Day in October 2021. It shows Willemijn in a green top, in a variety of speaking poses saying “I st-st-st-st-stutter. I create long silences and I am allowed to take up that space.”
Just Stutter
No items found.
https://files.stutteringcommons.org/comic.m4a
Patrick Campbell
The stammering aesthetic is an aspect of the person you may often witness when you meet them face to face, but one which is never shown on a still photograph.
Stammering Pride and Prejudice: Difference not Defect
Patrick Campbell
Christopher Constantino
Sam Simpson
Patrick Campbell
The stammering aesthetic is an aspect of the person you may often witness when you meet them face to face, but one which is never shown on a still photograph.
Stammering Pride and Prejudice: Difference not Defect
Patrick Campbell
Christopher Constantino
Sam Simpson
https://files.stutteringcommons.org/as-an-aesthetic.m4a
Conor Foran
JJJJJerome Ellis’s The Clearing asks how stuttering, blackness, and music can be practices of refusal against hegemonic governance of time, speech, and encounter. Taking his glottal block stutter as a point of departure, Ellis figures the aporia and the block as clearing to consider how dysfluency, opacity, and refusal can open a new space for relation. This photo shows some of the typographic detailing in the publication.
The Clearing
No items found.
Conor Foran
JJJJJerome Ellis’s The Clearing asks how stuttering, blackness, and music can be practices of refusal against hegemonic governance of time, speech, and encounter. Taking his glottal block stutter as a point of departure, Ellis figures the aporia and the block as clearing to consider how dysfluency, opacity, and refusal can open a new space for relation. This photo shows some of the typographic detailing in the publication.
The Clearing
No items found.
https://files.stutteringcommons.org/contemporary-contributions.m4a
Conor Foran
The Stammering Collective is an international group connecting clinical, cultural and creative practice in stammering, supported by Wellcome and University College Dublin. This event poster advertises the launch of their digital archive in October 2022.
The Stammering Collective
The Stammering Collective
Conor Foran
The Stammering Collective is an international group connecting clinical, cultural and creative practice in stammering, supported by Wellcome and University College Dublin. This event poster advertises the launch of their digital archive in October 2022.
The Stammering Collective
The Stammering Collective
https://files.stutteringcommons.org/in-our-collaborations.m4a
Conor Foran
Dysfluent is an independent magazine by Conor Foran and Bart Rzeznik that explores the lived experience of stammering through interviews and essays, facilitating contrasting and challenging views. Each interview is set in Dysfluent Mono, a font representing the person’s stammer. The second issue about stammering pride was published in October 2023 and is a compilation of interviews and visual artwork celebrating and challenging stammering pride.
Dysfluent Issue 2
No items found.
Conor Foran
Dysfluent is an independent magazine by Conor Foran and Bart Rzeznik that explores the lived experience of stammering through interviews and essays, facilitating contrasting and challenging views. Each interview is set in Dysfluent Mono, a font representing the person’s stammer. The second issue about stammering pride was published in October 2023 and is a compilation of interviews and visual artwork celebrating and challenging stammering pride.
Dysfluent Issue 2
No items found.
https://files.stutteringcommons.org/publications.m4a
Conor Foran
In 'I Talk Like A River', the author Jordan Scott relates stuttering to a bubbling, churning, whirling and crashing river. This is a watercolour illustration by Sydney Smith that features in the book.
I Talk Like A River
No items found.
Conor Foran
In 'I Talk Like A River', the author Jordan Scott relates stuttering to a bubbling, churning, whirling and crashing river. This is a watercolour illustration by Sydney Smith that features in the book.
I Talk Like A River
No items found.
https://files.stutteringcommons.org/we-all-stutter-and-stammer-in-different-ways.m4a
Conor Foran
Making Waves: a stuttering pride flag was created by a group of seven people who stutter in October 2022. The flag expresses three values. First: community, represented by sea-green, symbolising the existing community that has used this colour for stuttering awareness since 2009. Second: nature, represented by the wave motif, symbolising stuttering as a natural, varied phenomenon. Third: liberation, represented by ultra-marine, symbolising the progress and passion of the stuttering pride movement. This photo was taken at the first stammering pride march in August 2023 in Victoria Park, London, and was attended by people who stutter and their allies.
Conor Foran
Making Waves: a stuttering pride flag was created by a group of seven people who stutter in October 2022. The flag expresses three values. First: community, represented by sea-green, symbolising the existing community that has used this colour for stuttering awareness since 2009. Second: nature, represented by the wave motif, symbolising stuttering as a natural, varied phenomenon. Third: liberation, represented by ultra-marine, symbolising the progress and passion of the stuttering pride movement. This photo was taken at the first stammering pride march in August 2023 in Victoria Park, London, and was attended by people who stutter and their allies.
https://files.stutteringcommons.org/we-claim-stuttering-as-a-legitimate-and-valued-form-of-speech-variation.m4a