ISA
International Stuttering Association

A world that understands stuttering

ISA - International Stuttering Association is a worldwide network of people who stutter, a non-profit umbrella association dedicated to close cooperation among independent national and international self-help organizations of people who stutter. ISA was founded in 1995.

A good introduction to ISA, its history, activities and more may be found on Article about ISA written by Jaan Pill.  This article was published on the ISAD online conference on October 1 to 22, 2001 organized by Judy Kuster on the Stuttering Home Page

Member  Associations page presents a list of current ISA member associations.

Please refer to Application page for instruction of how to apply for ISA membership on behalf of your association.

1. The strong need for an international association for countries both in and outside of Europe. ELSA, founded in 1990, is a good model.
   
2. The chance for people who stutter to speak with ONE voice internationally.
   
3. Therapies, therapists and much more were often criticized in many national associations.
   
4. A precedent was set by the International Blind Union (established in 1929) and the International League of the Deaf for people with disabilities to be represented by international organizations. Why should people who stutter not speak with one voice?
   
5. Think globally, act locally. The World Congresses every 3 years are a good forum to create policies and international projects on stuttering.

* From Thomas Krall Keynote speech given in the 3rd IFA
congress in Nighborg, Denmark, August 2000

History of ISA*

The history of the ISA is the history of stuttering self-help, the World Congresses for People Who Stutter and ELSA, the European League of Stuttering Associations.

13 Aug 2007
We are pleased to inform that the following associations were accepted as a new member of ISA.

2007 Dubrovnik, Croatia
2007 World Congress for People Who Stutter
Theme: Creating Our Place in Society
Hosted by the Croatian Stuttering Association - Hinko Freund. Suzana Jelcic-Jaksic, Congress Convenor
May 17-11, 2007

Over 250 delegates attended the 2007 World Congress at the Croatia Hotel in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
For more information

2004 Perth, Australia
2004 World Congress for People Who Stutter
Fluency and Beyond: A Holistic Look at Stuttering
Hosted by the Australian Speak Easy Association
Peter Dhu, Congress Convenor
February 15-20, 2004

Over 350 delegates attended the 2004 World Congress at the Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle, Western Australia.
For more information

23 Feb 2003
We are Happy to inform that  that the Spanish Stuttering Association "TTM-ESPAÑA" was accepted as a new member of ISA.

15 Feb 2003
The final version of the Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for the PWS was translated to Hebrew. It is now on: "http://www.ambi.org.il/hebrew004.html#billofrights "

Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for the PWS is most important document created by PWS for PWS. As such It is highly recommended to translate it into other national languages and insert it on the national stuttering web sites.

28 Jul 2002
We are pleased to inform that the Burkina Faso Stuttering Association ACB was accepted as a new member of ISA.

28 Jul 2002
ISA board of directors accepted a new logo for the associations.  Here it is:

We would like to acknowledge all those who participated the project and especially:

• Mr.  Gregg Benedict, who designed the victorious proposal.

• Mr. Thomas Krall (the former ISA chair) for his involvement in the project.

• Sport sources Company, Beijing for providing other proposals.
   

22 Apr 2002
SCAC - Speak Clear Association of Cameroon which is a new ISA member has a new website. The URL is: http://www.stutterisa.org/cameroon/index.html.
This website was created by the ISA Webmaster group as a contribution to our new friends from Cameroon, Africa.

16 Nov 2001
We are pleased to inform you that three new ISA member associations have been accepted for membership in ISA:

1. SCAC, a self help association of people who stutter in Cameroon.

2. TMM-L,  a Spanish-language online self-help group for people who stutter.

3. Passing Twice, a network of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender stutterers and their friends.

The contact information of the new members will be published on ISA members page shortly.

2 Nov 2001
Three new stuttering web sites are on line.
The Chinese ISA web site (In Chinese), Czech republic group for PWS (In Czech) and the Croatian association for people who stutter (in Croatian).

31 Aug 2001
We have a new page "ISA newsletters". In this page the reader may download or to link to Newsletters of ISA associations members.

Please check the page to see if your national association newsletter is on the page. If not (and you have a newsletter on the web) please drop a note to stutterisa@NewMail.net and we'll add a link to your newsletter on the "ISA newsletters" page.

If your associations has a newsletter and wish to put it on the web. We will do our best to help you.

WE ARE ACCEPTING NEWSLETTERS IN ANY LANGUAGE

31 Aug 2001
ISA constitution was updated as ratified at the ISA membership meeting in Ghent, Belgium, July 23, 2001

17 Aug 2001
A page with the photos of the new ISA board and the advisory board was added. The photos were taken on the 6th Congress for PWS.

10 Aug 2001
On the 3rd ISA membership conference a new ISA board and a new ISA advisory board were elected. The contact information on Page 2a (ISA board page) was updated accordingly.

The Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for People who Stutter was updated. The last update was ratified by ISA (during the 3rd ISA membership conference) and awaits final ratification by the IFA.

7 Aug 2001
The 3rd ISA membership conference and the 6th Congress for PWS took place in Ghent, Belgium between July 22 and July 29. The conference and the congress were outstanding. We will shortly start constructing a special page on the ISA web site, devoted to these events.

In the meantime you may enjoy some photos made at the congress on the Web site of the Belgium Stuttering Association .

8 Jun 2001
The Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for People who Stutter was updated.

The Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for People who Stutter is a joint project by people who stutter, professional clinicians and researchers. It provides a framework for building a more humane, just, and compassionate world for the millions of people who stutter.

24 April 2001
The new ISA web site www.stutterisa.org is on the air !!

13 January 2001
The new ISA web site will be soon on the air.

10 invited speakers from Canada, USA, China and Germany.

Election of the next host country : Australia.

1998 Johannesburg, South Africa
5th World Congress for People Who Stutter
First World Congress on stuttering in a developing country.

A Delegate from the World Health Organization took part for two days.

ISA decided vision: A world that understands stuttering.

1995 Linko ping, Sweden
4th World Congress for People Who Stutter
The International Stuttering Association was founded on July 25.

Three years of intensive preparation and discussion led to this historical step.

Twenty-five national associations voted YES.

1992 San Francisco, USA
3rd World Congress for People Who Stutter
The most important question:
Do we need an international organization?

A meeting of delegates of national organizations decided to answer this question over the next 3 years.

1990 Darmstadt, Germany
The European League of Stuttering Association was founded.

1989 Cologne, Germany
2nd World Congress for People Who Stutter
Delegates of European associations prepared the founding of the European League of
Stuttering Associations (ELSA) for 1990.

1987 St. Andreasberg, Germany
First international meeting on the European level.

1986 Kyoto, Japan
1st World Congress for People Who Stutter
The beginning of global cooperation. Shinji Ito, chair of the Japanese organization suggested founding an international organization.

1980 Some time around 1970: Several self-help groups and national associations were founded.