For a man whose life has been built around communication, the loss of the ability to speak is a particularly cruel fate. But it's one that film critic Roger Ebert demonstrated that he could overcome, in a talk at the TED 2011 Conference in Long Beach, California, in February.
"These are my words, but this is not my voice," Ebert told the audience of nearly 2,000. "This is Alex, the best computer voice I've been able to find, which comes as standard equipment on every Macintosh. For most of my life, I never gave a second thought to my ability to speak. It was like breathing. In those days, I was living in a fool's paradise. After surgeries for cancer took away my ability to speak, eat or drink, I was forced to enter this virtual world in which a computer does some of my living for me."
Assistive Technology and humor