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What do you think we're walking on and where might we be?
This is a look inside Francis Ford Coppola Winery where blindfolded guests are taking
a popular tour called "Wine Tasting in the Dark"
We can just sit here in quiet and just taste and enjoy really what our non-visual senses
are telling us.
And this, is Hoby Wedler, leader of the tour. He's also a wine lover, a chemist working
on his Ph. D at UC Davis. And, he's blind.
Hoby is amazing in how hard working he is and what he can accomplish without realizing
that he's doing something significant.
And how, you might ask, does Hoby do chemistry, when he can't see it?
I don't see atoms. Nobody can see atoms and when I think about a molecule, I create a
visual map of it.
Much like the visual map he has created for getting around the expansive UC Davis campus.
The journey is much different when you can't see.
I can actually bounce sound from the cane off of objects and hear them . So right now,
you know, there's a pole right there on our right or something that's tall and skinny,
might be a pole. And here there's an object possibly a trash can we just passed.
Last call G-line Anderson, Alvarado, North Sycamore, Last call.... Golf.
While walking became a mental chemistry model to Hoby, riding the bus was a different story.
So he lead an effort to change the way that bus letters were announced
You learn very quickly that when you can't look at the huge letter on the side of the
bus, hearing something slightly inaccurately, like B vs P vs C vs D, they sound very similar.
So Hoby worked to change the system. Now bus drivers at UC Davis announce the phonetic
letter for the bus students are boarding.
And earlier this year, Hoby was recognized at the White House as a Champion of Change.
Acknowledging his commitment to a camp for visually-impaired high school students that
he created and now leads.
Alcohol.... Go Chemistry!
Neither blind nor...
Hoby says his desire is to share his motto in life with others who have a disability
Anyone can do anything, with enough hard work.
Kristen Simoes, UC Davis.