COTTAGE GROVE, Ore., March 20 An Oregon mechanic blinded in a vehicle crash runs his own business with help from a deaf assistant.Larry Woody and Otto Shima, a 17-year-old high school apprentice, talk through an interpreter who listens to what Woody has to say and then puts it into American Sign Language. Shima and his interpreter spend two days a week at Woody's business, D&D Foreign Automotive in Cottage Grove.Woody told the Eugene Register-Guard that he wants "to let people know that Otto's deaf and I'm blind, but we are still humans, so don't treat us any differently." While he has a full-time mechanic to take care of most of the work, Woody can still change filters and fuel lines. He also takes care of the paper work.Woody bought the business in 2006, several years after a head-on collision on Interstate 5 took his eyesight and came close to taking his life.A year after the accident, Woody, who moonlighted as a race driver, did 25 turns around the Cottage Grove Speedway, accompanied by a friend who provided guidance for him. Since then, he has driven in demolition derbies, steering an Oldsmobile modified to provide a passenger seat.Copyright 2007 by UPI
