Chapter 1

The problem and its background

1.1 Background

People with visual disabilities must make an extra effort to insert themselves into
society and to a participate as citizens in the world around them. The blind due to the
lack of vision especially in unfamiliar and large scale environments faced with
enormous problems in their way finding. In this study, we make a sensor that buzz
when it detects obstacle and then the information of the obstacle will be sent to the
visually impaired people to impede or avoid bumping on the obstacle.

In Global Context The prevalence of blindness increase rapidly with increases

rapidly with increasing age. Globally, there are some 32 million people who are blind
and 191 million with poor vision. The leading cause of blindness worldwide is
cataract, whereas uncorrected refractive error causes most poor vision. The rates of
blindness from diabetes and macular degeneration are rapidly increasing, and age-
related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in developed countries.
Three quarters of this blindness can be prevented or treated, and although the absolute
number of blind people increased slightly between 1990 and 2010, very importantly,
the prevalence of blindness has been halved as eye care programs and particularly
cataract services have developed. We know how to deliver better eye care, and it
works! However, with only 205,000 ophthalmologists worldwide, there is much work
to do. The International Council of Ophthalmology has a major focus on education an
team building to improve the quality and availability of eye care around the world. Its
programs include curricula for all levels, examinations, fellowships, teaching of
teachers, continuing professional development, and of course, the World
Ophthalmology Congress. We must work together in partnership to eliminate
avoidable blindness worldwide.

In Asean Context A number of visually impaired people suffer from navigation-

related activities due to mishaps that discourage them from going out for social
activities and interactions. In contrast to outdoors, traveling inside public spaces is a
different story, as many environmental cues cannot be used and have their own set of
difficulties. Some technologies have come into play in helping these people to have
freedom in navigation (e.g., accessible map, indoor navigation systems, and wearable
computing devices). However, technologies like accessible maps or indoor navigation
systems are insufficient to fulfill the independent navigation gap as additional
information is required (obstacle, barriers, and accessibility). To promote indoor
navigation and create better use of technologies for visually impaired people, it is
essential to understand the facts and actual problems that they experience, and what
behaviors and strategies they use to overcome any problems; they are the concerns
that led to this study. In all 30 visually impaired people and 15 experts were recruited
to give an interview about the behavior and strategies used to navigate indoor spaces,
specially public spaces, for example, universities, hospitals, malls, museums, and
airports. The findings from this study reveal that navigating inside buildings and
public spaces full of unfamiliar features is too difficult to attempt the first time for a
number of reasons, reducing their confidence in independent navigation.

In National Context, the physical and social consequences of visual impairment,

the DOH is pushing to address this health issue through a new National Policy on the
Prevention of Blindness program. In a statement, the Health department said:
“Avoidable blindness left undressed, particularly for those whoa are blind or have
severe visual impairment, result in reduced functional ability and loss of self-esteem,
and contributes towards the reduction of the quality of life. “The department is aiming
for local government units to adapt eye care programs which focus on avoidable
blindness (cataract, EOR, childhood diseases and emerging eye diseases) in
conceptualizing health programs. Its Prevent of Blindness program is targeting “right
of sight” for every Filipino by 2020.

Local Context, blindness or severe visual impairment results in reduced

functional ability and loss of self-esteem and contributes toward the reduction of
quality of life. The disability from visual impairment has considerable economic
implications with loss of productivity and income and can lead to poverty and social
dependency, experts said. To address the problem, the government drafted a new
National Policy on the Prevention Program on Blindness that is more responsive to
changing trends in the prevalence of eye diseases. Department of health (2017).
1.1 Statement of the problem

1.2 Theoretical and conceptual framework

1.3 Objectives - The objectives of this is to help the visually impaired people to
navigate in a more comfortable manner, this study can also help them in terms of
reducing the anxiety that they feel and also by doing certain things independently.

1.4 Hypotheses

1.5 Scope and limitation - This study focuses on helping the blind to

1.6 Definition of terms

Obstacle detection - is the process of using to detect objects or terrain types that
impede motion. It is used to help the blind people to navigate more comfort.

Buzzer/Beep - this device beeps in sensing when there are obstacles in certain
distance.

Sensor - is a device that detects and responds to some type of input from the
physical environment.

Detector - a device or instrumental designed to detect the presence of a particular

object or substance and to emit a signal in response.

Ultrasonic - are vibrations of frequencies greater than the upper limit of the
audible range for humans--that is, greater that about 20 kilohertz.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study is to help the visually impaired people so that they can
easily navigate through their homes. This can also be of help in terms of refining their
confidence. This study is also important due to two main factors. First, It is essential
to the blind people because they can now be independent on doing basic things. This
device can also help support the blind people on navigating and avoiding obstacles.
This is the way that they can be independent with the help of this device. Second, this
device can also be of help in reducing the anxiety problems of blind people. Vision
loss is associated with reduced quality of life and increased depressive and anxiety
symptoms. In turn, depression and anxiety may cause a further decline in quality of
life, may aggravate disability caused by visual impairment, and may increase
vulnerability for health decline.

The result of this study will benefit the following:

Blind people. The direct recipient of this study are the persons with impaired
visions technically to those people who can not see. If this research can be successful
then it can be of help for them to improve or to enhance the way on how they navigate
indoors.

Parents that have blind children are the secondary beneficiary to our
research.For our study can be of help to them in terms of enhancing their child’s
confidence and by helping them overcome their insecurities through out their
youth/life. And also this study can be a way for them in facing anxieties on their life.

School for the blind. Can benefited as well in this study because this can also be
of help for them on maximizing their students potential even though he/she has
problems visually and also to help them fully developed and honing their individual
skills, by inventing a product that is non discriminating for the students who has
problems visually.

PWD organization (Blind people) . They can also benefit because this study is
merely to boost the blind people's self esteem and by using the PODD it will reduce
the anxiety that they feel.
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Future Researchers. This research will also be useful for the researchers who
would plan on making any studies that is related to this study.

CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Foreign literature

Local literature

Global literature
CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design

Respondents and Settings

Sampling procedure

Sources of Data

Data Collection

Data analysis
Measure

Instrument

CHAPTER 4

PRESENTATION, ANLYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA.