Renting a Car with Hand Controls for Manual Wheelchair Users

Renting a car as a wheelchair user with hand controls from Hertz. We rented this car in Seattle, Washington at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport.
#disability #wheelchair #car

[@assocrec]

Pretty lady! Very organized too

[@sergiotaleisnik7024]

Loved the video, thanks! Wondering if every time you rent from Hertz the hand controls are this good, and whether other rental car companies are as good as what you show on the video. Do you know?

[@MeantToBeLindseyB]

The hand controls are always the same with Hertz. We always have a good experience with them. Unfortunately, that hasn't always been the case with other companies we've used in the past though.

[@angelblu27834]

Are the hand controls on the rental cars push/pull? For example, push for brake and pull for gas.

[@MeantToBeLindseyB]

Most are push down for gas and push forward for brake.

[@ChristopherCollinsworth]

cool. very useful video. Im a paraplegic and wondering how this works.

[@MeantToBeLindseyB]

Christopher Collinsworth Glad this was helpful! 😊

[@samnelson]

I want to know if you would have to go to rehab for evaluation for the portable hand controls?

[@MeantToBeLindseyB]

Good question! I actually would need to research this because I don’t know what the rules are on that but I’ll look into this and see if I can find the answer. They never question us or ask for proof of disability or anything like that when we rent a car, so I’ve never really thought about it before now.

[@slave288]

I can answer this one because this is what I do exactly. You can purchase a set of portable hand controls off amazon, they are very basic and easily adjustable and easy to install on most vehicles. You do not have to show proof of disability or even that you have passed a disabled driving exam to purchase or use them. Now I will say that because they are portable they are not as fancy or sturdy as professionally made or installed ones, but they work perfectly well typically, take some getting used to, but work once you get used to them they are fine. For me, having my own pair is just easier to deal with then relying on a rental company that may not have them or may not know how to install them.

[@MeantToBeLindseyB]

Thank you for chiming in. I agree with this and just realized I actually misread the question initially. I thought you meant for the more permanent type. We just purchased a portable set recently to have for this exact reason and they aren’t quite as sturdy but they do work and we didn’t have to show proof of disability.

[@warrenhall1585]

Do they have some type of foot plate ?

[@MeantToBeLindseyB]

You can still drive a car with hand controls regularly as well.

[@MeantToBeLindseyB]

@@warrenhall1585 Interesting. Generally, they take most of the panel off and leave the hand control mechanism exposed.