The International Stuttering Association (ISA) congress, organized by the Dutch stuttering association Demosthenes, will take place in Lunteren, the Netherlands, from the 10^th to the 13^th June 2013. The aim of this congress is to create a platform for people from all over the world who stutter or are involved, professionally or personally, with stuttering.

The congress has an impressive lineup of keynote speakers, including British author David Mitchell. He is probably best known for his novel Cloud Atlas, which was made into a movie last year. He has written two books since, Black Swan Green, and the Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

In it's thirteenth year, Camp BCAPS is now accepting registrations for it's 2013 session, taking place June 28 to July 1. Camp BCAPS, run by the British Columbia Association of People who Stutter, is for children who stutter to experience a supportive, non-judgemental environment where they are free to be who they are. Located in the beautiful Okanagan region of British Columbia, children enjoy regular outdoor camp activities as well as learning sessions about the nature of stuttering and how to deal with teasing and bullying. Friends and family of the child can attend with them. For further information and to download the registration form, go to the website.

This is a continuation of our series on Disability Studies as it relates to stuttering. Carolina Ayala's thesis research paper, Myself As I am, Not as Others See Me: Stuttering, Identity and Acceptance was submitted to the Graduate Program in Critical Disability Studies at York University in 2009.

Introduction/Summary

In her graduate paper, Carolina Ayala uses the principle of autoethnography to explore the issues surrounding how people who stutter cope in society, based on her own personal experiences. Citing the work of Carolyn Ellis, the term is defined as "connecting the autobiographical and personal to the cultural and social." This involves using personal stories and emotional recall of events that helped shape her identity as a disabled person, namely a person who stutters. Each situation, her reaction and the outcome of it, is analyzed from the perspective of others involved and in terms of issues relevant to Disability Studies. By doing so, the author "achieves freedom from these experiences through analysis and contextualization."