Summer 2003

Product Spotlight - The Multi-Faceted Machine Shop

Jim Smith operates a Computer Numerically Controlled Machining Center

At the Seattle Lighthouse for the Blind, dozens of visually impaired employees earn their living cutting metal and other materials in a modern machine shop. This team of highly trained blind, Deaf-Blind and low-vision workers ply their trade daily in our building at 2501 South Plum Street, turning out millions of dollars worth of high-quality machined parts each year.

Our machine shop activities began over fifty years ago, when the Lighthouse did its first small job for The Boeing Company. After a half century of focusing on regular, machine-shop-type manufacturing, employees now operate in a modern facility with a battery of equipment running the gamut from hand tools to advanced Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) Machining Centers. You will find the same equipment here at the Lighthouse that you would at any other comparable manufacturing company, the only difference being some modifications for accessibility. “Our real goal here is to be good enough and successful enough so that we can provide as many jobs as possible for people who are blind,” says Director of Manufacturing Don Helsel. “Unemployment among the blind is over 70 percent. We’re trying to do all we can to alleviate that.”

The advent of computer technology offers the Lighthouse unprecedented opportunities to create high-skill jobs for people who are blind. As the manufacturing sector in general has become more computerized and electronics-driven, the Lighthouse has been able to open up new job functions for people who are blind through the use of assistive technology. For instance, a sighted machinist would typically use a caliper with a digital readout to measure a machined part. This same caliper can be fitted with a digitally generated voice synthesizer to read measurements aloud to a blind machinist. By the same token, any manufacturing machine controlled by a personal computer (PC) can be outfitted with screen reading software that converts information into speech or braille, again making information available to a blind or Deaf-Blind machinist.

In April 2000, Jim Smith, a long-time Lighthouse employee, became the first blind person in the world to be trained and certified to operate a CNC machine. “These machines are powerful, flexible and fun,” Jim says. “I am able to go in and make extremely accurate adjustments, much more so than with a manual Bridgeport. 1/10 of .001 versus .003 of an inch, for example. With this machine I am able to do what sighted machinists do.”

Because of the need to make manufacturing equipment accessible for blind workers, the Lighthouse is careful to purchase equipment controlled by PC’s. This allows for easy addition of larger monitors, screen enlarging software and voicing technology. For example, when machine shop management decided to add abrasive water-jet capability to the equipment lineup, they settled on purchasing an Omax Jetmachining Center because it was controlled by a PC and not some other type of system.

In addition to technology, training plays a key role. “Our employees go through rigorous training routines designed to teach them the jobs they will be doing,” continues Helsel. “All of our routines are designed to not only get the job done, but to assure that the worker’s safety is not compromised. We have an excellent safety record and do very high-quality work. Over 99.5 percent of our parts are within tolerance.”

Jim concurs with the importance of training. “Being trained on this machine has given me more self-confidence,” he concludes. “I can listen to the voiced output and key in the necessary information. I can do it all.”

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