Getting speakup to run on debian

[Brandon Keith Biggs]

Hello,
I just installed debian and can't figure out how to get speakup to work. 
I type ctrl+meta+f1 to open the terminal, then I type espeakup. I get 
the message that espeakup is already running. But I can't get any output 
from typing or moving around. I know speakup is running because I have 
it in a VM and sometimes speakup and Orca like to say random words and 
speakup just said something to me, but I can't hear anything. I also 
don't get speech on any log-in screen.
Thanks,

-- 
Brandon Keith Biggs <http://www.brandonkeithbiggs.com/>