Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 7, 2026
Driving Simulation in the Clinic: Testing Visual Exploratory Behavior in Daily Life Activities in Patients with Visual Field Defects
Published on: September 18, 2012
Driving experiences of disabled drivers
R S Prasad1, J Hunter, J Hanley
1Scottish Driving Assessment Service, Rehabilitation Medicine Directorate, Astley Ainslie Hospital, Grange Loan, Edinburgh, UK. rama.prasad@lpt.nhs.uk
Objective:
To study the influence of non-standard controls on return to driving after disability, including prevalence of accidents/retraining difficulties.
Design:
Postal questionnaires sent within two years of assessment to 972 disabled drivers seen over a three-year period.
Setting:
Scottish Driving Assessment Service.
Subjects:
All patients considered capable of driving after assessment during the study period.
Results:
Five hundred and eighty-nine people (61 %) replied who were representative of the total population (mean age 55 years, range 19-87); 73% were male and 70% were disabled for up to two years. Overall 79% respondents had returned to driving (highest reported success with standard manual car (86%) and lowest using left foot to accelerate and brake (66%) (chi2 = 16.6, P = 0.005)). A significantly higher proportion of the 30 patients (6.5%) admitting to accidents and 25 (5.4%) to problems with retraining were using non-standard driving techniques, especially the use of hand controls.
Conclusion:
Disabled drivers returning to drive using non-familiar controls had lower success and a higher proportion of accidents and/or problems with retraining than people using conventional controls. If confirmed in larger studies this may have implications for policy-makers as well as specialist practitioners.
