Freedom to Speak and Freedom to Stutter at the 2016 NSA Conference (Ep. 585)

stuttering, StutterTalk
Jia Bin with host Christopher Constantino

Jia Bin joins Christopher Constantino today at the Joint Conference of the National Stuttering Association (NSA) and the International Stuttering Association (ISA) in Atlanta, Georgia. Ms. Bin shares that in China there is a lot of stigma surrounding disabilities and that many people with disabilities, including people who stutter, feel a need to hide their stuttering in academia and in the workforce. Ms. Bin discusses learning to stutter openly in the United States after feeling trapped with stuttering in China.

Ms. Bin shares, “The more you hide the worse it gets. So for years and years I had to hide every day. Every conversation I had to hide. I had to pretend I could talk like everyone else. That’s a lot of struggle for me. It’s like you are pretending you are somebody else your whole life.” Mr. Constantino discusses with Ms. Bin the consequences of choosing open stuttering.

The joint NSA/ISA conference takes place July 6-10, 2016. This is the NSA’s 33rd annual conference.

Jia Bin is a person who stutters from China living in Michigan. Ms. Bin is a high school Chinese Teacher.

Christopher Constantino is a person who stutters, a StutterTalk host and a PhD student in Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Memphis. Chris is doing his clinical fellowship in the Shelby County Schools in Memphis and is conducting a research study to understand and contextualize the experiences of passing as fluent for people who covertly stutter.