This reminded me of some wonderful writings from Roger Ebert, a brilliant man who also lost his ability to speak.

I cannot find it now, but I believe he wrote about this exact phenomenon: even with the best technology, you cannot communicate as fluently as a conversation demands, so you're relegated to the background.

Here's one of his writings I was able to find: https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/i-think-im-musing-my-...