Vision-related fitness to drive mobility scooters: A practical driving test
Christina Cordes, Joost Heutink, Oliver M. Tucha, Karel A. Brookhuis, Wiebo H. Brouwer, Bart J.M. Melis-Dankers
Clinical and developmental neuropsychology, University of Groningen, 9712TS Groningen, The Netherlands. E-mail: c.cordes@rug.nl
DOI: 10.2340/16501977-2194
Lay Abstract
Mobility scooters are electric vehicles with speeds between 5km/h – 15km/h that help people with motor impairments to stay mobile. However, the development of a visual impairment could make the use of mobility scooters unsafe. We therefore compared driving performance of people with different types of visual impairment (e.g. blurry vision, tunnel vision) with normal sighted people in an on-road mobility scooter driving test. We found that most of the visually impaired participants passed the driving test, although they showed more difficulties compared to normal sighted participants. Especially participants with tunnel vision experienced problems when driving the mobility scooter. These results are promising for visually impaired individuals who want to maintain their independent mobility, since they show that visually impaired people do not necessarily drive unsafely. We recommend an individual assessment for visually impaired individuals who wish to drive mobility scooters
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