Unbelievably,October will soon be upon us. For the stuttering community, that means it will soon be time for the 14th Annual International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD) on-line conference.

October 22 of each year is the designated world-wide awareness day about stuttering.

For the three weeks leading up to the 22nd, there is an on-line conference that consists of papers and multi-media presentations written and shared by people who stutter, professionals in the speech and language field and college students and professors.

It is the one time a year where there is a virtual smorgasbord of all things stuttering, contributed, read and shared by people affected by stuttering from all over the world.

The conference is organized and maintained by the wonderful Judy Kuster, who maintains The Stuttering Homepage year round, and archives past ISAD conferences as well.

Please check into the ISAD conference once it goes “live” on Oct 1. The best thing about the on-line conference is the opportunity for readers to interact with presentation authors, through threaded discussions which remain active for the entire 3 weeks. That means you can leave comments and questions for contributors, and get responses back.

College students can get college credits for participating and reading all of the papers. And there is a section called “The Professor is In”, where anyone can ask a licensed speech professional any questions about stuttering related issues.

This year’s theme is very telling – “Sharing Stories: Changing Perceptions.”  I suspect this means we will be treated to a multitude of presentations where we will learn the stories from people all over the world.

Stories do change our world view. That is evidenced by the stories that are shared on my podcast, Women Who Stutter: Our Stories.

Check out the 2010 ISAD conference for a taste of what this is all about and be sure to check in this year. Tell them Pam sent you!