When I installed onto a thumb drive, I got as far as getting espeak to say something, but spd-say hasn't worked.This is on a VmWare session.I've done apt update and apt install gnome-orca and apt install speech-dispatcher and apt install alsa-base pulseaudio and apt install speakup.
Did all of those package installations succeed?
Also, you said the distribution was Ubuntu-based. It might be
easier to install Ubuntu and then add whatever packages you need
than to deal with whatever customizations this distribution has
made.