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Teaching the handycap

R

river rat

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St Marys Ga.
I was ask by a very nice lady to try and teach her to turn. The problem is she is blind. She is an artist and did carpentry work before going lossing her sight. I know that there are turners that have other handycaps and was wondering if anyone has any experice with blind people and turning.



River Rat
 
There is an article on a man in Israel (in his 70's) in decembers Woodturning magazine. I was amazed I am sure that you could contact him for some pointers. Good luck and bless you for your undertaking.
 
I worked in the wood shop at Braille Institute for a semester when I was in college and was amazed how well the folks in the classes did. They were not limited to small items like bread boards, but did case pieces including one guy that built an entertainment center. Nothing was different from the way everyone else does it, glued up solid wood, dado construction, routed details, inset doors, a "real" cabinet.

Blind wood workers need to do things like run the operation with the machine off before trying it for real to get an idea of where things are and what will happen and how the operation will feel. Once that is done they work the same as anyone else. You will need to make a few adjustments like arranging the tools where they are easily in reach and can be selected by touch. The area around the lathe will need to ge kept clear of obstructions and thing that can be tripped over. You will need to set up a circle jig for the bandsaw if she will be cutting out bowl blanks. I suggest taking it slowly at first allowing her to get a feel for each operation. Basic spindle turning with, if you will excuse me saying it, scrappers should not be too big a challenge. Learning to present a skew to a spinning spindle could take some practice.

I think that it was harder for me to get used to watching and helping then it was for the students. To a sighted person running a board through a table saw with your eyes closed is at best counter intuitive. If you're blind it is just the way it works.

Take your time. Let her get go at her own pace getting used to each operation before going on to the next. Don't introduce too many things at a time. All the same things that you would do teaching a sighted person to turn. I think you will be surprised how well it goes.

Jan
 
RiverRat

I hadn't thought much about teaching the handicapped till I read the other thread here on the man with CP. Might something like a duplicator be of use here? Something with a pattern to rough out the turnings for the person, get the turning to rough dimensions for them. Right now I'm thinking of spindle turning (legs, pens, stuff like that) and I would think the biggest chance of hurting a person is while roughing it out. This might be a way to reduce that chance of injury so they can do the rest with a lesser chance of hurting themselves.

Just a thought.

Paul
 
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