This is interesting. Famous movie critic Roger Ebert lost his faculty for speech after cancer surgery. They've come up with something for him: http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/roger-ebert-gets-voice-grandkids-can-recognize-ap
See also the Esquire article on him: http://www.esquire.com/features/roger-ebert-0310-7 ...and Ebert's commentary on the article: http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/02/roger_eberts_last_words_cont.html
Thank you so much, DL! What it would be like to have so much to articulate, as Mr. Ebert, and have no voice (save through writing and now this computerized tool for him)...