nobu
"Neighbor Car in Handicap Parking I went to get into my car in handicap parking the other day. I was at a very large store, and my friend had wheeled me around in a store supplied wheelchair which was much speedier than slowly moving around with my crutches. As I was getting into the driver’s seat, a guy in the next car who was a passenger wanted to know more about my hand controls. It turns out he was a vet missing part of his lower right leg and had just started hand control training on a simulator. I told him that I had been using hand controls for at least 10 years, that I had MS, and that my right leg was too weak/unresponsive to move between the pedals. I filled him in on my situation. I was trained at the local Rehab Med Clinic at the University and all my training had been in the car. The first two sessions were in a very large parking lot, and the rest were on neighborhood streets and then on major roads around the University. Further, in Washington State, where I live, I needed to take a road test again through the state DMV to have special endorsement on my license. I was on my second car with manual hand controls and I have found that they work well for me. I do not have any upper body or cognition issues either. The manual hand control system I use allows regular drivers to use the floor pedals. They just need to keep their hands off the hand control. The vet was getting a more intricate electronic hand controls. His wife soon appeared, and she asked about switching between the two. I believe the electronic controls have a switch to change which devices can be used. I learned a great deal about what the VA offers and shared information with a fellow driver with handicap issues, it was a nice way to end a shopping trip before heading to lunch."