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Brian Davies, Register-Guard / AP J.J. Johansson, center, uses sign language to interpret instruction from mechanic Larry Woody, right, who is blind, for apprentice Otto Shima, left, who is deaf. AOL/Eugene(OR)Register-Guard Cottage Grove, Oregon Larry Woody shares his automotive know-how twice a week with his apprentice, though he's never seen the young man nor spoken directly to him.
Woody is blind. His apprentice is deaf.
"So much of it is done by feel anyway," he told the Eugene Register-Guard. "I use my hands to see what I'm doing now."
Woody lost his sight five years ago when a truck blew across the median on Interstate 5 and drove over his Toyota Celica. The accident nearly killed him.
With more than 30 years of fixing, racing and restoring cars, Woody vowed to return to work. With help from his wife Della and the Oregon Commission for the Blind, he achieved that goal less than a year after the accident.
The 46-year-old mechanic recently bought his own shop, D & D Foreign Automotive, and hired Otto Shima, 17, an apprentice from Cottage Grove High School.
Interpreter J.J. Johansson accompanies Shima, who was born deaf, on his twice-weekly visits to the shop. Her hands fly as she translates what Woody says. She then turns and voices Shima's reply.
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