На страницах speech-dispatcher man:
DESCRIPTION
speech-dispatcher is a server process that is responsible for trans‐
forming requests for text-to-speech output into actual speech hearable
in the speakers. It arbitrates concurrent speech requests based on mes‐
sage priorities, and abstracts different speech synthesizers. Client
programs, like screen readers or navigation software, send speech
requests to speech-dispatcher using TCP protocol (with the help of
client libraries). speech-dispatcher is usually started automatically
by client libraries (i.e. autospawn), so you only need to run it manu‐
ally if testing/debugging, or when in other explicit need for a special
setup.
Если вы уже не изменили свои системные настройки, spd должен быть запущен автоматически.