MANILA – The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is now involved in developing innovative, specialized face masks for persons with disability (PWDs).
In a report, Sec. Fortunato de la Peña said the DOST-Philippine Textile Research Institute (PTRI) was invited by social enterprise Ikapitbisigmo to collaborate on the creation of protective face masks to “address specific needs of people living with hearing and speaking disabilities.”
In its Facebook profile, Ikapitbisigmo is described as a non-government organization that seeks to promote disability inclusive humanitarian COVID-19 response through development partners.
The collaboration of the two organizations has already resulted to two designs for protective face masks.
“One for the hard of hearing who is fitted with hearing aids; and the hearing whose lips need to be read by the hard-of-hearing who communicate through lip-reading,” said Dela Peña.
The protective face mask design features a transparent layer to facilitate clearer communication between medical frontliners and people with disabilities.
Aside from a case holder, it also comes with pockets for the removable transparent screen and for the absorbent spare cloth of the inner layer.
“This facemask initiative hopes to facilitate access to health services through the use of a recommended APF mask with a transparent feature for the use of health front-liners.”
Sec. Dela Peña said the DOST-PTRI provides design assistance and testing services on Accessibility Protective Face Masks.
With this new service, the agency closed a deal with Davao-based banana producer and exporter Unifrutti Philippines.
Considered as one of its largest worldwide investments, Unifrutti Philippines contracted DOST-PTRI’s testing services for the design of its workers’ face masks.
As the premiere textile research and development arm of the Science and Technology department, the DOST-PTRI conducts applied research and development for the country’s textile industry sector, and undertakes the “transfer of completed researches to end-users or via linkage units of other government agencies.”
The agency also manages technical services and provides training programs.
