Tony Meli may be blind and deaf, but in his personal workshop, he is capable of things that defy belief.
The 54-year-old from Jerrabomberra in southern New South Wales communicates using a special form of Auslan where he holds peoples' hands while they sign to him.After transforming his backyard with landscape structures, brickwork and decking, the carpenter has now turned his hands to making ornate chair benches and fruit bowls."When I'm working in the workshop, I feel that I do have more power, I have control," he said.
"I can feel whether it's too far apart or if it's slightly off, it's not square, and if it's not right I'll take it apart and redo it," he said. Tony was born profoundly deaf and worked as a certified carpenter in Canberra for more than a decade before his vision started deteriorating."Over time I did notice that my work was changing, and I began to get really seriously concerned and upset, very sad," he said."It was really that I wanted to work, I wanted to go to work."
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