ISAD 2026

Welcome to the 2026 
International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD)
online conference!

Welcome to the International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD) Online Conference, October 1-31, 2026, celebrating the 28th time the Online Conference has been held! An enthusiastic team made up of Michele Ayoub, Anita Blom, Paul Goldstein, McKenzie Jemmett, Nicole Kulmaczewski, Pamela Mertz, Manon Spruit, and with the technical help of Bruce Imhoff, will coordinate this year’s  event, continuing the hard work of Judy Kuster who ran previous Online Conferences. The ISAD online conference is a private initiative by volunteers, and totally independent from any organisation.

This year, the Online Conference will start October 1 and finish October 31, acknowledging the many events around the world on October 22, International Stuttering Awareness Day.

If browsing the conference on a computer or tablet device, navigate through the conference using the menu bar at the top. If using a mobile device, use the ‘Menu’ button at the top.

Logo ISAD 2026 Shades of stuttering, with an image with different types of sunglasses

Here is a link to canva so that people can use it to make their own versions in their own languages! 
Also a canva link if you want to have the format in 1:1. 
Note: you’re NOT allowed to make your own versions of the logo, nor the wordings, other than the language.

Many thanks to Nicole Kulmaczewski and Michele Ayoub for the creation of this year’s logo.

The 2026 ISAD theme is
“SHADES OF STUTTERING –
What’s yours?”
Video: Michele Ayoub

Every October, people who stutter, parents, SLPs, researchers, and friends from all over the world come together to talk about stuttering — openly. This year’s theme is Shades of Stuttering — What’s Yours? Stuttering doesn’t look or sound the same for everyone. Mild or pronounced. Overt or covert. Techniques or acceptance. Or somewhere in between. Every shade is valid. Every shade belongs here. Join us for the ISAD Online Conference, running online October 1–31, 2026. Submit your paper, video, poem, story, research, or reflection at: 🌐 www.isad.live

For this year’s theme we wanted to talk about an idea that came up as we were discussing the whole stuttering experience. There are a lot of things that we experience as someone who stutters. Some maybe negative but there are also some positive things that we can also glean from or experience at the same time. So for this year’s conference we want to have a conversation about those challenges that we experience   but also highlighting things that we gain from stuttering. Things that help us connect to other people, things that help us value our speech, value how we express ourselves with one another. So we encourage and invite you to share your experiences. Share what challenges you’ve had but also what those positive things have been. How we can take both pieces, and move forward with awareness, speech and expressing ourselves. We’re excited to see what you bring to our conference this year.

F ex what are your experiences as a person who stutters, what hurdles did you face and has something good come out of it? What didn’t work and what did? Parents, what are your experiences on struggles and good practice? SLPs, what are your thoughts on challenges and victories? Kids and teens, what advice do you have for parents, siblings, teachers and friends? What do you want people to know? What can we do to make a change?

Write or record something, use audio and/or video, share research and presentations, submit drawings and poems.

Below are instructions for how you can participate in the in this year’s conference. We can’t wait to see and hear what you’re going to share.

We love to read, hear and read your diverse submissions.

Kind regards
The International Stuttering Awareness Day Online Conference Team

Feel free to use the logo and #ISAD2026

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Index

Instructions for Submissions

We welcome submissions from not only People Who Stutter (PWS), People Who Clutter (PWC) and professionals in the field of stuttering (for example, SLPs/SLTs and researchers), but also from those who are partners, parents, children, friends, teachers, colleagues and other allies. Submissions can be a paper, a video, a poem, a drawing, a chart, etc.

We also welcome for organisations to record activities their associations are doing for International Stuttering Awareness Day on October 22 on ‘ISAD Around the World.’

We will continue our KIDS Corner, TEENS Corner, and PARENTS Corner. We invite kids (-12) and teens (13-20) and parents of children who stutter to share a submission (paper, poem, artwork, short video etc.) aligned with the conference’s theme. We are excited to hear about stories and experiences about young people and thoughts to help spread awareness and provide a light to others.
IMPORTANT: With kids and teens submissions, we require parental consent for all under 18, to be sent to isad@isad.live, in order for content and photos to be posted, once accepted by the conference committee.
We’d also like to hear uplifting stories and experiences from PARENTS with children who stutter. How you help your child, stories about good practice in schools, a warm connection between your child and its SLP, etc.

Click here to find instructions and requirements on how to submit.
Note: All submissions must follow the instructions to be accepted.

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Instructions for visitors

  • Each submission has a threaded discussion at the bottom of the page for your comments and questions.
  • You can enter the conference by clicking on the top menu bar and read the content without a login.
  • If you would like to comment or ask a question you must register to create a login. We have a login requirement to help us prevent spam, duplication and inappropriate posts. You can register or login using your Facebook, Twitter or Google, as shown on the login/register pages. Login and register options appear on the right navigation bar.
  • If you are posting comments on a submission, please check previous comments to be sure your question hasn’t already been asked. Also please check the replies to comments by others, as the authors give a lot of information, tips and ideas that might be interesting and useful for you.
  • We have provided a space for participants to ask questions to Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) and other professionals in the field.  The professionals will monitor the questions in the ‘Talk to a Professional’ forum.
  • We have also provided a section where you can ask PWS about their lives, work, coping skills, advice, etc. The PWS will monitor the questions in the ‘Talk to a PWS’ forum. For those of you using the ‘Talk to a Professional’, the ‘Talk to a PWS’  and the ‘ISAD Around the World’ pages, please read the instructions on each introduction page before posting to that topic.
  • You can see and comment on submissions between October 1 and October 31.  After October 31 you can still see submissions but you cannot comment.
  • To allow our authors and panel members to respond to questions, please post your questions and responses before October 22, as we will close this possibility after the 23rd, to give them a chance to give everyone a thorough reply before the live conference ends on the 31st. So if your question or comment hasn’t been answered before the 22nd, they will be before the end of October.
  • An automated translation service can be found on the right side of each page of this website. 
  • The authors’ submissions will be permanently archived on the International Stuttering Awareness Day site pages for future reference.

We hope you enjoy the conference!

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Find your way through the website

The online conference consists of different parts, as you can see in the green header on top. 

  • ISAD2026 will bring you back to the starting page for this year’s online conference
  • Papers presented by will take you to the submissions for this year. As you can see in the section on the right, they are divided into
    • Creative Expression: Poems, cartoons, drawings, songs
    • Research, Therapy and Support: All about the latest news on research, therapy and support groups
    • Stories and experiences with stuttering by PWS: Personal stories from PWS, but also our allies, such as friends, parents, teachers, etc.
    • Kids corner: We have now created a space especially for kids up to 12, a special place where kids can share their stories, drawings, videos and other creative expressions
    • Teens corner: We also have created a space especially for young PWS between 13-20, where youth can share their stories and creative expressions
    • Parents corner: Parents share their stories
  • Talk to a Professional will take you to a page where you can ask your questions to a team of professionals in the field of stuttering.
  • Talk to a PWS will take you to a page where you can ask questions about living with stuttering to a team of people who stutter from different parts of the world. 
  • Around the world is to post and read about what’s planned for and around the ISAD in your country.
  • Feedback gives you the opportunity to share your feedback about the conference
  • Previous ISADs gives you access to ALL the previous ISAD online conferences since 1998! You can no longer comment, but there is a wealth of information on stories, therapies, research and creative expressions from people from all over the world.

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Background

Read more about the history and background of the ISAD, the online conference, the founders, our vision and mission HERE.

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DISCLAIMER

THE CONTENT DISPLAYED ON THE WEBSITE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE NAMED AUTHORS. ALL PUBLICATIONS ARE THE OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF THE AUTHOR AND NOT NECESSARILY OF THE ISAD TEAM. IF YOU PLAN TO REPUBLISH OR TRANSLATE, YOU MIGHT LIKE TO CONTACT THE AUTHOR, BUT ALWAYS REFER TO THE SOURCE PAGE/S ON ISAD.LIVE.

 

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