ABSTRACT

An average human person relies on their basic senses―

namely their sense of taste, touch, hearing, smell and sight. If
even one is damaged or completely non-functional, one’s ability
to maneuver their daily life would prove to be of great
difficulty. This task is difficult for average human beings; one
could only imagine what it is like for handicapped people
especially those who were not born with the disability and had
years of normality before coming up with the illness. Eyesight
specifically, and the lack there of poses a problem in a wide
context. The World Health Organization (WHO) released an
estimate of 39 million people who are blind from the 253 million
who are visually-impaired. 89% of these people come from low and
middle income countries. The Philippines being one has a
statistic made by the Department of Health that the 2017
estimated number of persons who are bilaterally blind is 332,150
of which 33% or around 109,609 is due to cataract, 25% (83,037)
due to errors of refraction (EOR) and 14%(46,501) due to
glaucoma. The rest are due to other eye conditions like
glaucoma, retinopathy and maculopathy. In addition to this
statistics, the current number of persons with bilateral low
vision is 2,179,733 of which 43% (937,285) is due to EOR, 34%
(741,109) cataract, and the rest is caused by glaucoma and other
eye diseases.
This study aims to show the development of the Ultrasonic
Walking Guide and is designed to answer the following questions:
(1) What are the components utilized to create the device? (2)
What specific procedures were followed in creating the blind
assistant device? (3) To what price would the creation of the
whole device amount to? (4) What is the performance of the
device in finishing the obstacle course with (a) 3 obstacles (b)
5 obstacles (c) 7 obstacles in comparison with the traditional
walking cane? (5) What may be recommended based on the results
of the study?
A developmental research employed with quasi-experimental
design In gathering the data, the researchers tested the device
using different numbers of obstacles, (1) 3 obstacles, (2) 5
obstacles, (3) 7 obstacles, respectively at a 6 meter distance.
This further includes the application of the control group
(traditional walking cane) and the experimental group
(ultrasonic walking guide) in three set-ups. The statistical
tools that were utilized are computation of mean and t-test.
After the conduct of data gathering, the following findings
were drawn: the average time consumed by the subject to finish
the first obstacle course provided by the researchers at the
main building of Sorsogon National High School using the
traditional walking cane is 0.46 minutes. As for the second and
third set-up, the average times consumed are 0.59 minutes and
0.62 minutes respectively. In using the ultrasonic walking guide
it shows that at the first set-up with three trials, utilizing 3
different obstacles has consumed an average of 0.43 minutes to
finish the obstacle course; for the second set-up with 5
obstacles, the average time consumed is 0.82 minutes; the third
set-up with 7 obstacles consumed an average time of 0.59
minutes.
Based from the research findings, the following conclusions
were formulated: the traditional walking cane can be used by the
visually-impaired people; however, it can also be dangerous for
some who are not used to it. This also means that the ultrasonic
walking guide designed by the researchers proves to be
favourable and more advanced as compared to the traditional
walking cane that is commonly used by the visually- impaired
people.