On November 6, the LightHouse held its first-ever soldering workshop for people who are blind or have low vision. It was a huge success, and we have the photographs to prove it! Scroll down for more.
Soldering is a fundamental skill in electronics work that involves using a hot iron to fuse metal to form a permanent connection between electronic components. The aim of the workshop was to help students make their own accessible continuity testers – one of the most fundamental tools for students working in electronics without vision.
While most continuity testers use lights to indicate the strength of electric currents, accessible continuity testers emit a range of tones — high for a free path and low for an impeded path. Unfortunately, accessible continuity testers cannot be purchased, and previous manufacturers have ceased production. Each student left the workshop with a fully-functioning accessible continuity tester for use in their future work; and the skills to solder it themselves.
“Blind people are makers. We can do things like soldering and building robots and woodworking,” says Dr. Miele. “We might use slightly different techniques, but the outcome is the same. The LightHouse is all about teaching these alternative techniques so that people can engage in the activities they love, whether they’re sighted or not.”
Here are a few lovely shots from the workshop, by photographer Erin Conger:
The workshop was held in LightHouse’s Innovation Lab on the 11th floor. A close-up of the sign outside the STEM lab in room 1145 reads “Innovation Lab Sponsored by Toyota”. A large window reveals a few students hard at work inside the lab.A diverse array of students, instructors, and volunteers are hard at work in the LightHouse’s Innovation Lab. A Be My Eyes poster stands out in the background as an indicator of the space’s many uses, including as a home base for two accessibility start-ups.Baskets hold some of the essential components for making continuity testers: stainless steel forceps, insulated handle-wire strippers, wire cutters, wrenches, and Phillips-Head screwdrivers. A few spools of insulated wire — also essential — sit to the left.Red, green, black and white insulated wire spools sit on a table. Color indicators help sighted individuals distinguish between wires, while vision impaired students use a system of knots to differentiate between them.A close up of a student’s hand resting on the table near a soldering iron set in its station. A soldering iron is a handheld tool with an insulated handle and heated metal tip used to melt solder.A group of 13 students, instructors, and volunteers are hard at work around the long central table in LightHouse’s Innovation Lab.Six students and volunteers sit around two tables, hard at work. The grey work surface is scattered with castaway bits of wire and solder. The lab’s large windows offer a view of neighboring grey buildings.A student’s fingers slide down the length of a pair of stainless steel forceps to find the point of contact on the circuit board. This technique helps students who are blind create landmarks for soldering throughout the process.A curl of smoke rises from the tip of a hot soldering iron as a student melts points of solder onto his circuit board.A female soldering student wearing reflective sunglasses and a colorful headband leans over her work station, deep in concentration. A steel vice is used to steady a yellow circuit board for ease of work while soldering.Workshop facilitator Dr. Joshua Miele of the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute oversees the work of a male soldering student.A man in a grey shirt and suspenders clasps a yellow circuit board. Behind him, a student in a tawny shirt is holding a soldering iron in hand. A smattering of tools are sprawled across the table next to a folded cane.Clasping a pair of yellow wire-strippers, a female student in a teal shirt uses the instrument’s notched jaws to remove the insulation from a section of yellow wire. Her other tools are scattered on the table in front of her.Two older male students collaborate at a busy soldering station.A middle-aged blonde male student bends over his workstation.A grey-haired student in a black polo shirt glides his hands over the notches on his circuit board.A man with long gray hair and a purple shirt sits facing away at one of the high top work surfaces in the Innovation Lab. His glossy black guide dog is on the floor at his feet, staring directly into the camera.A smiling grey-haired male student wearing a black hoodie and a white button-up sits at the table grasping a completed continuity tester.
The LightHouse’s Innovation Lab will continue to offer workshops in STEM fields, so stay tuned. It is part of our mission to strengthen the representation of people who are blind or have low vision in the tech industry and other STEM fields.
For more information about future workshops visit the LightHouse Calendar or contact Director of Community Services Lisamaria Martinez via email at info@lighthouse-sf.org or by phone at 415-431-1481.
When you step into the street, whether it’s to represent a cause, celebrate an achievement or just to get where you’re going, you make a statement: I want to be seen.
In the blindness community, we’re used to being looked at. What’s different, though, is choosing to be seen; claiming agency over the spectacle, and making it your own.
On Friday, June 10, the entire LightHouse community is going to depart from the patterns of our daily routines and take over the streets, marching from City Hall, down Van Ness Avenue, onto Market Street, and to a ribbon-cutting and party at our new headquarters, We are in center of San Francisco to make a ruckus, to make a statement, to challenge the idea of business as usual, and encourage our community to think differently about those with different types of vision. Contrary to what you may think, we are blind and proud of it, and we want to be seen in celebration.
This is a parade for people with all types of vision; and we’d love nothing more than to have people who have never met us before filling out our ranks. So tomorrow, Friday June 10 at 11 a.m. sharp, meet us on the Polk Street steps of city hall. It will be a memorable day to set up the blindness community for the next 114 years in downtown San Francisco.
1 Commenton Blind and Proud: March With Us on June 10th
Whether you’re a student, supporter, or just curious to see hundreds of blind people shutting down the streets, this is an occasion not to be missed: Meet us on the east steps (Polk Street side) of City Hall at 11 a.m. on June 10th and join in this historic San Francisco event.
Our June 10th Grand Opening Celebration will be a civic event, starting with VIP speakers on the steps of City Hall, followed by a “Blind & Proud” Parade with fanfare down Van Ness and Market Street to our new headquarters at 1155 Market. There we will have a ribbon cutting and an open house reception, showcasing our new facilities with interactive activities and demonstrations.
Please March With Us!
Our Grand Opening events will be a great San Francisco occasion with hundreds in attendance and thousands more to witness as the LightHouse expands our mission to give people who are blind or have low vision the tools and community they need to live their lives as they desire.
We would love for you to join us in our march from City Hall to the new LightHouse. Our “Blind & Proud” Parade will begin after our welcome on the steps of City Hall, and proceed down Van Ness and Market Streets, right in the heart of San Francisco. We would love our allies and supporters to bring a group and help us to create some fanfare as we make our way to our new home. We have a big marching band to lead the way and help tell our neighbors, loud and clear, that the blindness community has cause to celebrate.
To RSVP, please contact Andrea Ogarrio at aogarrio@lighthouse-sf.org or 415.694.7365. For more information about the days festivities, or to secure a spot in the parade for your group or organization, please email Grand Opening coordinator Megara Vogl at mvogl@lighthouse-sf.org.
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