DRAFT BILL OF RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES FOR PEOPLE WHO STUTTER

This Bill of Rights and Responsibilities provides guidance on the rights and responsibilities of people who stutter. It was drafted by participants at the "ISAD Bill of Rights Workshop" facilitated by Michael Sugarman and Amy Johnson at the 17th NSA Convention in Chicago, Illinois; modified by Kenneth St. Louis; and further modified by Luc De Nil based on feedback from congress participants at the IFA Third World Congress in Nyborg, Denmark.

We are soliciting your comments, additions, and modifications to this draft. Please send your comments to ISAD22OCT@aol.com Thank you.

Bill of Rights & Responsibilities

• The Right to stutter or to be fluent to the extent one is able or chooses to be
• The Right to communicate and be listened to regardless of one's degree of stuttering
• The Right to be treated with dignity and respect by individuals, groups, institutions, and the media regardless of one's degree of stuttering
• The Right to be accorded all rights mandated by laws or regulations for all citizens regardless of one's degree of stuttering
• The Right to redress of grievances for documented evidence of failure to be treated fairly under the law or to be treated with dignity and respect
• The Right to be informed fully about therapy programs, including estimates of the likelihood of success, failure, or relapse
• The Right to receive therapy appropriate for one's unique needs, concerns, and characteristics from professionals adequately trained to treat stuttering and its related problems
• The Right to choose and participate in therapy, to choose not to do so, or to change therapy or clinician without prejudice or penalty
  

• The Responsibility to understand that listeners or conversation partners may be uninformed about stuttering and its ramifications or that they may have different views of stuttering than most who stutter
• The Responsibility to differentiate those reactions from listeners or conversation partners that are the result of lack of awareness or accurate knowledge of stuttering (e.g., surprise and comments thought to be helpful whether or not they are) and those reactions which result from a lack of respect or fairness (e.g., ridicule, bullying, teasing, or discrimination)
• The Responsibility to inform listeners or conversation partners if one needs additional time to communicate
• The Responsibility to enter into an open and cooperative partnership with a qualified clinical service provider with whom one has freely made a written or unwritten contract to enter into a clinical collaborative relationship.
• The Responsibility to do whatever one can to overcome life handicaps that have occurred because of stuttering, including developing a realistic appraisal of one's strengths and weaknesses and developing a healthy sense of humor about oneself
• The Responsibility to assist whenever possible in educating the public about stuttering and its ramifications
• The Responsibility to regard and treat others who have differences, problems, disabilities, or handicaps with fairness under the law and with dignity and respect, regardless of the nature of their conditions