Blind woodshop teacher says tactile tools and dark-room training build skills and confidence

Ray Wright, a sensory-impairment specialist and woodshop teacher with the Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, said his classroom teaches blind and visually impaired students to use standard woodworking tools without sight and to rely on touch, sound and strict safety rules.

"All the equipment in the shop, except one, are regular off the shelf equipment — lathes, the compound miter saws, the sanders, the routers," Wright said. He described a tactile measuring device known locally as a "click rule": "It's a threaded rod inside a metal tube with a little ball bearing in it. And every sixteenth of an inch, it makes a clicking sound. So you count the number of clicks, and that's how you measure."

Wright said…