Cheap Costing Handicapped Driving Equipment - Hand Controls for Cars - Handicap Info Resource

There are essentially two things which you must look into when looking into the assistive technology required for driving as a disabled person:

• Recognizing the significant price variation among different disabled car dealerships and trying to find the lowest price possible
• Locating the equipment which is compatible with your car but most importantly your physical requirements.

When you start looking into finding the correct handicap car equipment you'll find out that you'll need multiple different items, which I'll outline below:

• For those who can't use both lets (paraplegics) or who can only use one leg the use of hand controls are required. Hand controls allow engagement of the floor pedals by using one hand in usually a push rock or push pull motion. These two motions are the most common but there are around one hundred different hand control variations with varying mechanisms so even though the majority use these two motions there are still some which do not.
• Then there's the assistive equipment such as a pedal guard to stop accidental engagement of the gas/brakes by unwieldy feet and legs. There are several different but necessary types of assistive mobility gear which are designed to be used in conjunction with hand controls.
• Finally there's peripheral equipment such as reach extenders or car caddies which aren't always necessary for safe driving but create an easier and more comfortable experience.

Finding what you want is difficult in countries such as the United States due to the low population density and highly spread out nature of buildings and shops.

To start with the cheapest way to get hand controls is to purchase a portable set because this drastically reduces two costs.

1. The cost of the driving control itself is usually around 300-400 dollars which is around 100-200 dollars cheaper than buying it from a disabled car dealership.
2. There's no cost of installation since it can be done simply by following instructions, and seeing as most mechanics installing this type of specialized equipment can charge from 50-90 dollars an hour with installations taking 2-6 hours I'm sure you can easily see how you're saving around half the total cost.

If you already have hand controls and you just need a steering knob or other similar items which are self install-able then you can purchase some of these online.

On the other hand most types of driving aid are not open to being purchased online, especially more advanced models which require complex integration with your car's systems and hence professional help.

In this instance it's necessary to locate a number of local disabled car dealerships and find out what they stock and how much the item and installation costs.

In this scenario it's very much a case of finding the cheapest price like you would do anywhere else - by shopping around to find the lowest price.

Just make sure that you inquire as to the installation costs because these vary wildly and can make or break a 'good deal'.

I'll make sure to keep this brief, but ultimately there are a lot of different things which need to be taken into consideration when starting to learn driving again.

As you can imagine the physical devices required for driving are just one aspect of many, and there are many barriers to overcome - financial, physical and mental.

I would certainly recommend reading into my page on paraplegics driving with spinal injuries if you think this has been useful to you, and I implore you to ask questions below as well as participate in my poll.