ROLE OF PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT TO ORIENTATION AND MOBILITY OF BLIND IN PSBN WYATA GUNA BANDUNG

- Visually impaired is a general term to describe the condition of a person experiencing disability totheir sense of sight. Due to the disability, the process of orientation and mobility of the people with visuallyimpairment is inhibited. Therefore they try to increase their sensitivity of other senses like sense of touch, senseof smell, and sense of hearing to obtain information from the surrounding physical environment. PSBN WyataGuna is a residential for the visually impaired, as the physical environment it must have physical elements thatcan provide information which affect effectivelly to the orientation and mobility of the visually impaired. Thepurpose of this study is to find out what physical elements in the environment of PSBN Wyata Guna that affectthe orientation and mobility of the visually impaired and how effective the influence of these elements.This study use qualitative descriptive methods by mapping the behavior of fourteen respondents (personcentered mapping) who do orientation and mobility in the physical environment ofPSBN Wyata Guna. Physicalenvironments are classified based on elements that define the space, ie horizontal and vertical planes, which is,tactile pavements, materials differences, Ramps, steps, corridor columns, ceramic walls, shrubs, and handrailling. Observations held on Saturday and Sunday in the morning-afternoon when most of visually impaired dotheir activities outside the dorm.The result of this research shows that people with visual impairment in the environment ofPSBN WyataGuna use the physical environment to obtain information for their orientation and mobility. This orientation andmobility activity is mostly affected by tactile pavements, ceramic walls, and Ramps. Shrubs and hand railling haveless role to the orientation and mobility of the visually impaired. Thus, it can be concluded that the physicalenvironment ofPSBN Wyata Guna is influential in the orientation and mobility of the visually impaired.Key Words: orientation and mobility, visually impaired, physical environments, physical elements, PSBNWyata Guna