hi, in order to use ratpoison, you would use orca. But as a general warning, the xterm which ratpoison starts up will *NOT* speak. The way I accessibly use ratpoison is as follows:
1: cd to your home directory by typing:
cd
2: in a text editor, vi, nano, whatever your fancy, create a file called .ratpoisonrc by typing:
nano .ratpoisonrc
3: Fill it with the following contents:
bind c exec /usr/bin/mate-terminal
bind o exec /usr/bin/sh -c "/usr/bin/killall speech-dispatcher ; /usr/bin/orca --replace"
bind w exec /usr/bin/ratpoison -c windows|/usr/bin/spd-say -r 100 -e

4: exit the editor
5: next, lets get started with x. still in your home directory, type:
echo "ratpoison">.xinitrc
6: if you're using speakup, shut it up by pressing one of these key combos until it says "You Turned Me Off! ":
numpad insert+numpad enter
control+windows+enter
caps lock+control+enter, in that exact order
7: type the following to boot yourself into x:
startx
8: when you're done, close and save all your files, hit control t then ! (exclamation point), then type:
killall ratpoison
if you hit numpad 7 or caps lock, you should hear speakup yapping at you. To bring it back to life, hit the same key combo you did to turn it off.
If you have no insert key and need to change orca's preferences, hit control t, exclamation point, then type:
orca --replace -s
This will start another orca, displaying its configuration dialog, which you can use to set the keyboard layout to laptop, change voice attributes, keybindings, and other options.
hth