Issue Date: 4/4/05
Finding His Voice
Refusing silence, a deaf man named Rupert wows the hearing world
In a dressed up hotel ballroom in San Diego, Jesse "Rupert" Dubler argued that babies on airplanes should ride in car seats, in order to prevent the frightful possibility of "baby missiles."
He was gaining an edge on his opponents -- community college speech-and-debate students -- despite an uncomfortable echo in the room and the obnoxious din of a television outside.
He did not mind the noises, though, because he could not hear them. Rupert is deaf -- the only deaf student to compete on the Palomar College speech team and probably the first in its 50-year history.
He's winning competitions, too.
"He's a born debater," said Jason Hosfield, a senior debater on the team who helped show his teammate the ropes.
Hosfield said Rupert faces two communication barriers: silence in a world of noise, as well as ignorance in a world of peculiar legal jargon.
"Honestly, my first reaction was, I felt kind of -- not bad for him, but he didn't know what he was going into, being that debate is such an elitist, linguistic activity," Hosfield said.
Rupert, a 21-year-old who is known only by his nickname, knew he would raise some eyebrows when he joined the team two months ago.
"I think they were skeptical at first," Rupert said, speaking through an interpreter. "They were thinking, 'You can't do it.'"
But Rupert wanted to show that his deafness would not disable him, he said, and it seems he has succeeded.
He has consistently advanced to semi- and quarter-final debate rounds at competitions. At his first tournament, he took first place in impromptu, an on-the-fly speech event.
In the baby-missile debate, which unfolded March 12 and he went on to win, Rupert animated his arguments with furious movements and facial expressions. His "entourage," as he calls it -- two interpreters and a real-time captioner -- worked to keep up with him.
But in American Sign Language, an organic, three-dimensional environment, the language of the body is as important as the words.
He was gaining an edge on his opponents -- community college speech-and-debate students -- despite an uncomfortable echo in the room and the obnoxious din of a television outside.
He did not mind the noises, though, because he could not hear them. Rupert is deaf -- the only deaf student to compete on the Palomar College speech team and probably the first in its 50-year history.
He's winning competitions, too.
"He's a born debater," said Jason Hosfield, a senior debater on the team who helped show his teammate the ropes.
Hosfield said Rupert faces two communication barriers: silence in a world of noise, as well as ignorance in a world of peculiar legal jargon.
"Honestly, my first reaction was, I felt kind of -- not bad for him, but he didn't know what he was going into, being that debate is such an elitist, linguistic activity," Hosfield said.
Rupert, a 21-year-old who is known only by his nickname, knew he would raise some eyebrows when he joined the team two months ago.
"I think they were skeptical at first," Rupert said, speaking through an interpreter. "They were thinking, 'You can't do it.'"
But Rupert wanted to show that his deafness would not disable him, he said, and it seems he has succeeded.
He has consistently advanced to semi- and quarter-final debate rounds at competitions. At his first tournament, he took first place in impromptu, an on-the-fly speech event.
In the baby-missile debate, which unfolded March 12 and he went on to win, Rupert animated his arguments with furious movements and facial expressions. His "entourage," as he calls it -- two interpreters and a real-time captioner -- worked to keep up with him.
But in American Sign Language, an organic, three-dimensional environment, the language of the body is as important as the words.