If your character has been developing for months, it's not just the case of making a new character. Put it like this:I can see that, though as Toto wrote earlier, the option is always there to create another character. The whole point of roleplay is improv, and you go with whatever happens to your character.
You've had a character for a long time, you happen to end up with someone getting major on your character through some basic means (maybe a fight that lead to a KO), they cut out your characters vocal chords. This is a very developed character, throwing them away because of this would be hard. I know if Saeko ended up losing her vocal chords, I'd still want to RP her out because I've had her for the last eight months and she has a lot (club-leader, a bunch of friends and family, reputation) but since there's a lack of JSL being applied for, it would be nearly impossible to communicate with others.
This is a character with a lot of development, maybe a lot of connections and a lot going for them, why just get a new character when there are options available. If your main character is on a team, has responsibilities and essentially rather strong connections with a lot of people, just getting rid of this character is essentially wasting everything you've put towards making this character as developed as it is. People are using improv, they're adapting by using text to speech. While I'm not opposed to them applying for JSL, there are only three language spots and sometimes people can't afford to drop a language to get JSL (family languages, languages already applied for that have meaning). There is also a huge rise in people applying for languages such as Italian, French, Korean - mute people can't use these.
JSL used to be a big thing when I first joined the server and now no one uses it, so it would be nice to see it be used but also because people aren't using JSL anymore, people are unable to communicate through it without a direct translator. As right now, perms are always being thrown around as an issue due to how easy it is to get perms on characters for just doing the right thing and reporting crime - this can lead to a character being forced to become mute. KPD are constantly stumped because no ones reporting crimes due to the perms that come with it and removing TTS will just make this a lot harder especially since people may be unable to get JSL and therefore are scared their character is going to be forced to be mute.
As Vroosi stated, it could cause for major perms to just be made into removing vocal chords and if people are getting rid of characters because of this, it's 10x more easy to wipe out a family/gang by doing that instead of just . . roleplaying out KPS properly and with reason.