10/19/2026
I would have loved to be at the spellers conference! https://www.facebook.com/share/p/188xu7M132/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Good morning, dear family. Thank you so much for your prayers for the Spellers’ Freedom Conference. It was a phenomenal experience that felt like the heavens parting to give us a taste of what it must be like to be so seen, heard, and loved.
This was unlike any conference I have ever been to, and I’m sure unlike any you have. Spellers were welcome to be ourselves throughout all of the sessions, some of us stimmed, paced around the room, rocked, or vocalized, and everyone was locked in. Our families are used to listening over the low roar of our body noises, and our fearless leader Dawnmarie set the welcoming tone for all communication approaches and every rogue body to remove any need for holding anything back or in, and it felt like a shame-free zone where no one had to explain or apologize for rogue body interruptions because we all get it.
What a breath of fresh air that allowed us to relax, regulate and stay present for such a soul nurturing experience. Non-speakers were featured on a self-advocacy panel, as key note speaker (Elizabeth Bonker) and co-presenter.
Our “Ask Me Anything” panel was attended by a packed house, and we had phenomenal stories and beautiful answers to raw and challenging questions from struggling families and practitioners, and spellers. My co-panelists are amazing pioneers, writers, college graduates/students, advocates, policy shapers, and a future politician. Many attendees expressed gratitude for our testimony and witness and encouragement.
It felt so amazing to be a part of such an enriching experience, and I am so grateful. This afternoon I am hitting the waves with my best friend, Bastian, for the surf camp, and I have a feeling this will be yet another significant experience for me as the waves hold such deep meaning for me.
Thank you again, dear family for your prayers, encouragement and support. I am attaching my intro presentation, and will post some of our Q and A as well.
Love,
Jack, surf rider with the Captain of the Storm
My name is Jack Hague. I am a nonspeaking autistic twenty-year old who found freedom from my solitary confinement at the age of seventeen when I met my spelling practitioner, Sarah Wright. She saved my life.
I had endured years of insulting special ed in early intervention full of monotonous repetitions, and behavior modifications, PECs and presumption of incompetence by kind hearted, but short-sighted educators and behavior specialists who were big-headed and narrow-minded. I was presumed to have an intellectual disability and wasted years of my life doing repetitive tasks and learning the same thing over and over again because my rogue body prevented me from selecting or saying what I wanted.
My whole world kept shrinking along with the specialists’ determinations of my ever widening gap between what my peers were learning and what I was allowed to learn. I ended up in a small classroom in an autism specific school where the more letters after their name, the less they expected from us. My future shrunk down to a black hole where only death waited for me.
At the age of fifteen, I typed the words, “I want to die” on an ipad at school. I felt so alone, so misunderstood. I knew I could not survive the rest of my life in this hell of a prison that closed in around me.
To empower us to communicate is not only to unlock our intelligence which will undoubtedly change the world, but to give us the opportunity to have friendships which is life-saving work. Because to be disconnected from meaningful connections is death. Many of us who have lived most of our lives without the ability to connect have wished we were dead. This is our living hell.
This was why I knew I could not give up on spelling to communicate, even though it was the hardest thing I have ever done. To want something so much, causes my body to self sabotage. I know there are spellers and parents out there who are frustrated by their slow progress, but I am here to remind you that to give up is death.
As hard as it is for communication partners to deal with a rogue body, please remember it is 1,000 times harder for your non-speaker because they want this more than you. This is the elixir to life. Do not withhold it. To my non-speaking counterparts: We need you, and you need us. Do not give up. Life is worth it for the sake of connection. Connection is life.
If not for my amazing practitioners Sarah and Donna, and a family who loved me and caught glimpses of my intelligence, I would not be here today. I am eternally grateful for their dedication and determination to become communication partners, including both parents and my siblings, and to support my desire to finish my high school diploma and take college classes, advocate, blog, and drive hours every month for spelling lessons and social gatherings with other non-speakers.
Now I am so fortunate to experience the longest, deepest desire of my heart: building deep and meaningful friendships with other nonspeakers. I urge non-speakers and their support to break open connection via any means possible whether it means driving four hours every other week to connect in person with another speller, or meeting via Zoom as my support has done. We need this vital opportunity to find connection, and we know the cost full well for support as well as the potential for failure if our bodies cannot find regulation. The efforts are still worth it. Let’s push through the dis-regulation and build our resilience and our ability to stay present with each other.
My mantra has been “Freedom is coming one letter at a time.” I don’t know what you are facing today, but can we face it together? Together, build resilience to take our next difficult step. Together, share connection, love, strength, and belief that helps us know we can do the next hard thing with joy, because we are not alone. We need each other to stay strong, create better access to communication as a human right, relationships as a universal need, and education and mental health support as vital and appropriate for our flourishing. Thank you.
