Adaptive crutch a big hit for PWDs

ACCORDING@ to@ the@ Philippine @ Statistics Authority (PSA), there were about 1.4 million Filipinos who belonged to the persons-with-disability (PWD) sector in 2012. Among them comes a young Filipino inventor, who used his disability to create an instrument that can make the life of his fellow PWDs more convenient.

James Camacho, inventor and user of the foldable crutch system or adaptive crutch as he calls it, is a polio survivor who has been dependent on mobility assistive devices all his life.

He related that his eureka moment came while boarding a plane to Malaysia.

“One attendant took the crutches off my hand and assisted me in storing my crutches but she couldn’t find a proper space to store my crutches, and decided to wrap it in packaging tape. I knew she was just trying to help me, but that somehow sparked a eureka moment for me but it took years for me to even really sit down and create a design for it,” Camacho shared.

The adaptive crutch can be used by any PWD that suffers lower body paralysis, can be adapted and be used by all age groups and can support up to 300 kilos of body weight.

With the help of the Department of Science and Technology- Technology Application and Promotion Institute (DOST-TAPI), Camacho was granted financial assistance for the modeling of the invention under the Industry-Based Invention Development (IBID) program.

DoST’s Metals Industry Research and Development Center (MIRDC) assisted in the design and fabrication while TAPI’s Intellectual Property Rights Assistance Program (IPRAP) helped in filing the patent at IPOPhil.

Camacho was able to test his current prototype with favorable results through the Tahanang Walang Hagdan while inputs helped him improve his design.

He is now planning the precommercialization phase leading to full product launch.

Through tireless efforts and collaboration with DoST, James Camacho develops the usable prototype of his invention that will be used for pilot testing.