VoiceOver talks, but nothing else will.

I have an SE third GEN running 18.5. Yesterday I discovered that the volume buttons weren’t working to turn the voiceover down. I reboot rebooted the phone, but when it came up, nothing would talk. I could feel the haptics, but no voice over. VO came back after a few hours, thankfully. But, nothing else will talk. I opened the radio station app that I have and it would not play. The book I was reading on bard will not play. Several other things will not play. Is this fixable, or has my phone reached the end of its useful life?