Teaching Adaptive Techniques to Woodworkers and Carpenters who are Blind or Vision Impaired

This course introduces vision rehabilitation therapists to adaptive strategies for teaching individuals with visual impairments to safely and effectively engage in woodworking and carpentry activities. Course participants will explore assessment, organizational methods, and practical adaptations for measuring, marking, and operating tools. Emphasis is placed on safety, accessibility, and empowering clients to maintain or regain independence in woodworking as a hobby or vocational skill.

This course is available for 2 ACVREP credits.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Identify key safety and organizational practices that reduce risk and enhance accessibility in woodworking environments for individuals with visual impairments.
2. Explain adaptive techniques for measuring, marking, and tool operation using tactile, auditory, and high-contrast methods.
3. Develop individualized strategies to support clients in continuing woodworking or carpentry activities safely and confidently.

The following are recommended screen reader and browser combinations.

Mac: Voiceover with the latest version of Safari,

PC: JAWS or NVDA with Firefox

The course shows a start date, but this is simply the date the course was made available to the public. They are self-paced. So, there is not an end date. You can enroll at any time.

This course was developed by the National Research & Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision (NRTC) at Mississippi State University. We are the only national center funded to conduct research related to employment for people with blindness or low vision, and training and technical assistance for the federal Older Individuals who are Blind program. As a national center of excellence, we offer resources on a variety of topics for service providers, businesses, and persons with vision loss on our websites:

For daily content relevant to the field of blindness and low vision, connect with us on social media: