Motoring with arthritis (view report contents)
Products and techniques
You may well be able to drive an unadapted car, particularly if it has automatic transmission and power steering. However if you start to feel discomfort, pain or stiffness, it is worth considering the adaptations available. See below and our Car controls guide, but this is also the time to get individual advice from a Mobility Centre.
If friends or family also drive your car, make sure your adaptations
do not prevent them doing so or get in their way unreasonably.
In this section:
Getting in and out
Steering
Changing gears
Accelerating and braking
Hand controls
Parking brake
Secondary controls
Other ways of driving
Getting in and out
If your main car key is small but full of electronics, a chunky key holder on a spare key gives more leverage. They cost about £5 and are available from general aids suppliers.
Having the door hinges modified and the seat runners extended will give you more space to get in and out of the car. It may be possible to have an existing seat converted – to be higher, made height adjustable, swivel or be power assisted. Costs start at about £800 from adaptation firms. If swivelling helps, there are turning cushions (mostly between £20 and £80 from general aids suppliers) and replacement swivel seats, mostly from £700 upwards from adaptation firms.
There are some simple DIY solutions: loop a stiff length of webbing or a walking stick over your foot to pull it by hand over the door sill; and use a plastic bag to help you slide on to the seat and to swivel – but remove it for the journey. To get in, sit first then turn and bring your legs in, doing the reverse to get out.
Many newer cars have adjustable seat belt fixings and there are seat
belt devices – available from motor accessory shops – for
reaching the belt, easing the tension or altering the anchorage point
on the door pillar. For safety in any accident, the straps need to cross
your shoulder and fit low across the pelvis, avoiding your stomach.
Wheelchair users
If you use a wheelchair, there is a range of devices and techniques for getting you and the wheelchair into your car or van. See:
Getting a wheelchair into a car for:
- hoists which lift a manual or powered chair into a vehicle
- rooftop hoists which winch a manual chair up and on to the roof of a car
- racks which carry a wheelchair on the back of a car
- trailers and ramps.
People lifters for:
- lifting seats which swing out and into the car, lowering and locking into a position to suit you
- wheelchair systems which are a specially designed wheelchair that slides into the car while you are sitting in it and becomes the car seat
- wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAVS) which you travel in while in your wheelchair, including a list of specialist conversion companies.
Primary controls
Steering
If gripping the wheel is painful, padding the rim with foam inside a wheel cover might help. It is worth having power assisted steering but the effort needed varies. On some cars it can be adjusted to suit you - contact an adaptation firm or a Mobility Centre for advice.
There is a range of different shaped steering balls or spinners so you
can steer with one hand. They can help with tight turns, but you are likely
to find it better to use both hands and so spread the effort. Holding
the steering wheel at the ‘20 to 4’ position will probably
be more comfortable than ‘10 to 2’ or ‘quarter to 3’.
Changing gears
This is likely to be easier with automatic transmission. To stop the car rolling back on slopes, you will need to use a handbrake or have an adaptation such as brake assist. There is a range of simple devices to help you to depress the safety button on some automatic gear selectors. If you cannot use a mechanical gear selector, there are systems which electrically set the gear for you, but these can be costly. It might not be worth adding them to an older vehicle. A Mobility Centre will advise you.
Some cars have manual gears designed to be easy to use – such as nudging the gear stick – without having to use the clutch.
Pushbutton clutches have a touch sensitive switch mounted on the gear stick (around £1,000 to £1,500+). Some clutches work automatically as soon as the gear stick is moved.
Types of semi-automatic clutch vary from mechanical levers to servo-assisted systems. All of these require manual dexterity so are best avoided.
If you drive an adapted manual car but your driving licence is for automatic
vehicles only, you must make sure the clutch pedal is removed.
Accelerating and braking
If your legs are weak, pedals can be power assisted to reduce the effort needed to use them, or they can be made to work with little movement.
If your right leg is affected, consider having an automatic car and a flip up left foot accelerator fitted on the left side of the brake pedal (around £300). Have a twin flip type so that when one accelerator is flipped down, the other moves up out of the way. Do take driving lessons to learn to drive this way.
Some people who have difficulty moving their right foot from accelerator
to brake pedal use the right foot to accelerate and left to brake in an
automatic car. Again, this will need a lot of practice.
Hand controls
If you cannot use foot pedals at all, different types of hand control can be fitted on an automatic car – floor mounted ones might suit you. Take advice from your doctor or therapist on whether hand controls are likely to aggravate your arthritis. See our Car controls guide for more information.
Parking brake
Bolt on attachments make using the brake easier. These include simple
levers to take the effort out of pushing the release button and handles
you pull to operate the whole brake. These cost from £60. There
are also electric brakes with on and off press buttons, ranging in price
from around £700.
Secondary controls
These are used for things like lights, indicators and horn and there are many simple attachments to make them easier to use – such as extended indicator stalks.
There are also infrared systems with switches for all secondary controls. They can be fitted and adjusted to meet your needs but might be too fiddly. Getting used to an infrared control can take practice as you need to find the right button by touch. Many do not have automatically cancelling indicators.
There are also bleeper and tone systems – press one button to control several functions by pressing until you reach the one you want. Voice control systems work by spoken command and are programmed to act on only your voice.
Prices of these vary widely depending on how complex the adaptations are and also on the type of wiring system your vehicle has. They start at about £750. Check a system’s compatibility with your car with an adaptation specialist.
Mirrors
A panoramic mirror (around £20 from adaptation firms) can be placed
over or replace a standard rear view mirror and will be particularly helpful
if you have severe neck stiffness. Stick on ‘blind spot’ mirrors
(from £2 in motor accessory shops) extend what you can see in door
mirrors.
Other ways of driving
Nearly all controls can be altered or adapted to suit you and complete
systems built around you if necessary. Obviously the more equipment you
need and the more it has to be adapted, the higher the cost. You will
certainly need a thorough assessment at a Mobility
Centre and specialist instruction for systems that involve driving
in a very different way.
Report Contents
About
this guide
Driving
with arthirits
Choosing
a car
Plan
of action
Products
and techniques
Finance
Further
information
Helpful
organisations
