Blind woodshop teacher trains students in tactile woodworking, emphasizing safety and independence

Ray Wright, sensory impairment specialist and woodshop teacher at the Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, described in a Utah Libraries Have You Covered interview how his students learn to use standard woodworking tools in nonvisual ways to gain practical skills and independence. "We build things out of wood and more importantly, we build confidence," Wright said.

Wright recounted his own path from Southern California and a long career in movie-theater work and photography to losing his sight from retinitis pigmentosa. He said he was diagnosed at 22 and went totally blind around age 40, then attended rehabilitation and orientation programs that taught braille, mobility, assistive technology and vocational classes. Those classes, Wright said, led him to discover woodshop and later to…