I had just written about this privately to someone when I saw this post so here it goes...
There are many ways to communicate verbally. My husband invented a great system using a cap with a laser that points with a specially designed alphabet board. It was amazing, we even got him a special talking computer but he always preferred his system , once we got the hang of it we were able to have lengthy conversations and could go really fast. many times I realized that I had forgotten the fact that he could not talk. You only need a little practice and some neck control (not that much). It was wonderful for us, he couldnt speak through his mouth for the last 3 years of his life and the transition from talking orally to not being understood was really hard, like 6 months of not communicating, until this invention happened. But you dont have to go through that. We made instructions for the system but they are in spanish. I promise to work on translating it very soon as I feel it can be of much help to people here. If someone needs it faster please private message me.
We also has a lot of signals for all his needs. It began with words and sounds he could make, facial gestures, blinking (different ways meant different things etc). At the end 2 pages full of subtle things he would do with eyes , mouth nose etc. Only at the very end, the last month, when he was too weak to use the cap, we could still communicate verbally using the board selecting each row then each letter by blinking. So don't worry, you will not be incommunicated, it is just a matter of being flexible and creative.