I really liked this, particularly the way someone who knew Rodney (John) was still able to communicate with and understand him. It mirrors my experience with my husband, who ended up unable to talk due to a tracheostomy and ventilator (he still had his tongue, but it's difficult to speak when there's no airflow over the vocal chords, y'know. :) ) We could 'talk' to eachother with just a look or a facial expression quite easily.

My only thing- and this is from my own experiences, and I read what you said about Rodney going all-or-nothing- is that there was no real mention of lip-reading, which the others could've learned. (Some people are actually naturally quite good at it- I could lipread my husband fairly well within about a week of first needing to, though part of that is also just knowing what he's likely to be saying.) I could see Rodney being possibly more accepting of that as a method of communication, because, well, it puts the onus on other people to learn to understand HIM. :) (Well, as much as they'll ever be able to, inferior intellects that they are. *g*)

His response to the various communication technologies seemed right on, though- most of them SUCK for realtime communication. (He could do a briefing, say, with a talking computer, but the lag time something like that introduces to a normal conversation is horribly frustrating, particularly if you're used to being able to converse at speed.)