Roger Ebert speaks for the first time on Oprah

Imagine not being able to speak. Not at all, nothing. You have no voice box. Now imagine losing the ability to eat food. Welcome to legendary film critic Roger Ebert's life. Since losing most of his jaw to cancer treatments in 2005, he eats through a drip tube and speaks through post-its, hand signs, and a generic computer voice from his iMac.

Watch him speak for the first time after the jump.

Oddly, though he's lost the ability to speak, his voice has never been bigger. He writes more reviews and is quoted on more DVD boxes than ever. Now he's going public. Chris Jones, of Esquire, wrote a great piece on him a couple weeks ago. The writer followed him around for a few days and got to know Roger and his wife, Chaz, who now live a much quieter life.

Ebert plans to speak again. He has been trying to regain his voice for several years now. Several companies have tried to create computer voices using samples of his voice from the many years he was on television and his DVD commentaries on films like Citizen Kane, but none succeeded, until now. On Tuesday, Ebert premeired a beta of his new voice on The Oprah Winfrey Show. I must say, it sounds pretty good. The entire segment is below.