For employee who lost his vision, no limits in sight.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

COBURG - Jeremy Bishop sat at his work table at Monaco Coach Corp. one recent morning, assembling wire harnesses and fuse holders that control the locks in the bay doors of Monaco's motor homes.

He attached a metal eyelet to the end of a wire, stuck it into a hydraulic-powered crimping machine and stepped on a foot pedal to mash the two pieces together. One false move, and the machine could easily mash one of his fingers as well.

That simple piece of assembly work was remarkable only because Bishop is blind.

"I see different than you do," he said. "I see with my hands."

Bishop, who turns 31 this month, could see until he lay down for a nap on Aug. 28, 2005. When he woke up, he was blind, a complication from Type 1 diabetes.

On Oct. 9, 2006, just over a year after losing his vision, he returned to work at Monaco. He could have pursued other work traditionally considered to his disability, such as answering phones or working with computers, but he wanted to come back and do the work he loved, working with wires and electrical systems.

"My whole life I've been hands on," he said. "I like to do things."

In recognition of Bishop's successful return to work, the Oregon Commission for the Blind recently named him its 2007 Employee of the Year. For its willingness to bring Bishop back, Coburg-based Monaco Coach was named Employer of the Year.

Bishop, who lives in Springfield with his girlfriend and two children, had been diagnosed with diabetes at age 26, and suffered some complications, but the sudden loss of his eyesight was a jolt.

"I see nothing," he said. "I see black."

Complicating matters further, five days later, he learned that his girlfriend was pregnant. With twins.

Doctors tried without success to restore his vision, and Bishop underwent numerous surgeries.

He began working with the Oregon Commission for the Blind, which provided him with training to learn the everyday tasks that suddenly had become more complicated.

He connected with Vicki Jack of Springfield, a longtime leader in the local blind community, and found that they had much in common. Jack lost her eyesight when she was 22, and she is the mother of twins. She encouraged him and offered him tips for looking after young children.

She told him it's OK to feel sorry for himself, but not to wallow in it. "If he had a pity party, he's not letting it last," she said.

It helped that Bishop has such a positive outlook, she said.

"He's one of the few I've dealt with that had so much drive," she said.

"I never heard him say, `I can't do it.'

"What he's finding, even without his vision, is there's lots of good life for him to experience. You can whine all you want, but you can't bring it back."

The hardest part of going blind, Bishop said, is having to depend on other people.

"I don't like asking people for help," he said. "It is a huge pride thing."

But Bishop said he's grateful for the help he gets from friends, family and co-workers. His father, for example, who also works at Monaco, often gives him a ride to work.

Before he lost his sight, Bishop, who graduated from Sheldon High School in Eugene, was busy and active. Along with his work at Monaco, he worked as a bouncer at local clubs, putting his bald pate and burly build to use. In his free time, he liked going four-wheeling and tearing around the Oregon Dunes on his souped-up all-terrain vehicle.

For as long as he can remember, he's liked working with electrical systems, and one of his hobbies and sometime avocation was installing custom, high-end car audio systems.

In his nine years at Monaco, Bishop, who earned an associate degree at Lane Community College in automotive electrical systems, worked his way up to where he was in charge of wiring and installing electrical appliances in the bedrooms and bathrooms of Monaco's coaches. After going blind, he knew he wanted to come back.

After he went blind, Bishop was still a Monaco employee, retaining his health benefits for one year, though he wasn't working, he said. When he suffered a health setback as his anniversary date approached in August 2006, the company held a job for him until he could come back in October, he said.

Monaco had offered him a position in information systems, working with computers, but Bishop wanted to get back into production. When he asked his supervisor, Brian Kramer, about a production job, Kramer thought, "What's a blind guy going to do here?"

While he was apprehensive, he knew that Bishop was a bright, skilled worker. But the company had to make sure he could work and get around safely in a bustling factory filled with potential hazards.

"Safety was a huge concern," said Craig Wanichek, Monaco's director of investor relations.

It helped that Bishop had worked there for years, and was familiar with the plant layout. If he needs to use the restroom or go to lunch, he'll grab a co-worker to guide him.

While the state award is a nice honor, that's not why Monaco decided to bring Bishop back, he said."We were doing it to get a good quality employee," he said.

Wanichek said Monaco was under no legal obligation to rehire Bishop.

Kathleen O'Gieblyn of the Oregon Commission for the Blind said the Americans With Disabilities Act, or ADA, is so complex it's impossible to say whether the company was obligated to make reasonable accommodations so that Bishop could return to work.

"Monaco saw Jeremy as a valuable resource they wanted to retain and they made the appropriate accommodations," she said. "I've never seen a more responsive employer in my 27 years of working in this field."

Monaco "had to be shown how the job could be done," but the company's attitude was "very open," she said.

The ADA is a federal law that gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities. The law requires employers to make "reasonable accommodations" so that workers with disabilities can continue to do their jobs - for example, a visually impaired worker might be given a magnified computer screen.

Bishop said the work he's doing now is just scratching the surface of what he can do. He's talked to Kramer about doing more, with a goal of becoming an electrical trouble-shooter - someone who figures out why a door or piece of electronic equipment isn't working on a finished coach.

Outside of work, he's determined to live his life as fully as possible, too. He still enjoys fishing, camping, barbecuing - "I'm not going to tell you I haven't burned myself a time or two" - and going to Duck football games.

He even took his all-terrain vehicle out for a short spin, and he's determined to some day go roaring around the Oregon Dunes in an ATV.

"My whole life, I've had obstacles thrown in my way," he said. "You can't let things take you down. You just got to keep your head up."