Press Release: San Francisco Formally Recognizes National Stuttering Awareness Week, A First For California
SAN FRANCISCO — May 10, 2022 – San Francisco today became the first city in the state to recognize National Stuttering Awareness Week. District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston partnered with Proud Stutter and the wider Bay Area stuttering community to pass a resolution to acknowledge this special week for the stuttering community, May 9, 2022 - May 14, 2022.
Events are taking place virtually this week to cast a spotlight on the significant number of people in society that live with a stutter.
“I am honored to be recognizing the stuttering community in San Francisco,” said Supervisor Dean Preston. “It’s important we spread awareness about this speech disability that impacts 1 percent of the population. My hope is that other cities in the Bay Area and beyond pass resolutions to help shed light on stuttering.”
Stuttering impacts about 3 million Americans and over 70 million people worldwide. When stuttering continues into adulthood, a person may have difficulty communicating with other people and stuttering may affect a person’s quality of life, interpersonal relationship, job opportunities, and professional growth.
“Hiding my stutter was always a burden I took on alone. Ever since I could talk, I felt misunderstood and isolated from my peers,” said Maya Chupkov, host and producer of Proud Stutter. “Since launching the podcast and coming out of the shadows, I’ve found my people. I’ve never felt so myself until I met other people who stuttered in my community and across the globe. Our voices deserve to be heard and here we are. I am so grateful that we get to all come out together to celebrate this historic moment with each other.”
Paul Castellano and Barbara Hubbard Koval, members of the National Stuttering Association, organized the drive to win Congressional recognition for people who stutter, and in 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation establishing the second week in May 1988 as National Stuttering Awareness Week.
“Stuttering not only is still stigmatized but it is also widely misunderstood,” said Nina G, Bay Area comedian and author of the memoir Stutterer Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen. “Not enough is being done to help normalize stuttering, many who stutter experience discrimination in their jobs and personal lives – myself included. That is why I am so excited about Proud Stutter, a podcast hosted by a woman working to reduce the stigma associated with stuttering and bringing light to this issue through creative storytelling and advocacy.”
“It has been refreshing to see stuttering talked about more in the Bay Area. However, many people still don’t know much about it, about what causes it, how to communicate with someone who stutters, about the impact it has on us,” said Bailey Levis, a proud person who stutters and speech therapist / owner of West Coast Stuttering Center, a San Francisco based private practice tailored to working with stuttering. "An important thing I work on with my clients is accepting ourselves just the way we are, being proud of our stutter. Not letting it slow us down will support us in living our fullest, happiest, most authentic lives.”
“In the stories I tell, I often find myself drawn to the theme of defying expectations,” said Gina Chin-Davis, a woman who stutters and filmmaker. “Yes, stuttering impacts how we experience and show up in the world, but at the same time, it’s just another part of who we are. Art has the power to show and celebrate our multitudes, and that is the kind of representation I want to create and see more of.”
“Stuttering can be a very isolating experience, especially for people that have a more inconsistent stutter like mine,” said Sarah Nelson, a person who stutters. “Speaking is like walking on a two by four. It's really easy to do. It's almost like a habit and routine. But for people who stutter, it's like walking on a two by four 10 feet up in the air. You're worried about just making it through. That is why I’m thrilled for this opportunity to spread more awareness about the different forms of stuttering.”
“It’s critical that public officials and leaders at universities, companies, and organizations create safe spaces for people with stutters and any disability,” said Mike Meaney, a person who stutters and a technology researcher based in San Jose. “This allows differently abled people to thrive and for them to know that nobody is discounting them for something beyond their control – that people do not discount what we say because of how we say it.”
Proud Stutter is a podcast about shifting the narrative around stuttering created to lift up the voices of people who stutter from across the globe. Full details of SF's National Stuttering Awareness Week events can be found here.
###
