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Comment by Bonooru | Hacker News Reader

How does driving as a quadriplegic work? What are tools and modifications that make it possible?

Lowered floor with ramp conversion (lots of specialty manufacturers do this, mine is VMI), custom reduced effort (2:1 ratio) horizontal steering (like a bus, but 8 inch diameter), reduced effort gas/brake hand control (hand control is Menox, I think the reduced effort part is custom), Paravan Touch system for ignition/shifting/secondaries, tri-pin on all hand interfaces to hold my hands in place with special splints.

You can buy a van from the conversion companies pretty easy, my steering column was built by a specialty company in San Diego. All together it works very well for me.

edit: here's a picture of the setup, the steering wheel is elevated here but it normally sits right above my lap: https://imgur.com/a/qOSP5Dg

Could you get one at another angle? I can’t quite figure out how the 3 handles work.

Also, that plate looks like it’ll drive straight into your chest during some hard braking.

Edit: NVM, I get it now. I see that it’s mounted on the centre column and you basically shove your left hand into it.

I am assuming you mean paraplegic? Don't know of many quadriplegic people who can (or would be allowed) to drive, but I know a couple of paraplegic people who do.

I was surprised at how little (and quick) the modifications were to a standard car to make them accessible. Really only the mounting of a grip knob on the wheel, and a side handle for the throttle/brake. There were other mods such as pull down strap handles for the boot lid etc., but by and large the biggest mods were those two in the cockpit.

> I’m a quadriplegic and drive a heavily modified van

> I am assuming you mean paraplegic?

This is the most contrary Hacker News I've seen yet.

Do you honestly think it's likely that someone is mistaken about whether they're paraplegic or quadriplegic?

A more charitable interpretation would be that parent is replying to grandparent alone, having found the comment on 'new', and is unaware of the great-grandparent comment that prompted it.

The "comments" page (not "new"; that's articles) has no reply buttons, presumably because replying without context is anti-conversation. I don't think it's charitable to assume other commenters would do that.

So there isn't! I occasionally look at that page, but have never gone so far as to actually try to respond to anybody that way, so I never noticed the lack of Reply button.

This is a thread about people being dumb, I suppose, so I am proud to have played my part.

Nope. Quadriplegic.

No, they mean quadriplegic.

Please read the comment they are replying to. OP states they are quadripelegic. The comment you seem offended by is a direct response to that.

Many quadraplegic people have limited use of their arms. Pretty much everything I know about quadraplegics I learned from the most excellent documentary, Murderball, which is about quadraplegic rugby, a full-contact sport played in wheelchairs. Athletes are assigned a number based on their degree of movement ability and your team can field a certain total, so strategically you can opt for a larger number of less-mobile players.

If you watch Murderball, which I'd recommend, make sure to watch the DVD extras, which includes an episode of Jackass starring some of the film's athletes.

It is confusing for those outside the community. A person who had full use of her legs but severely limited use of her arms and hands would not be considered "paraplegic". However, if she had no use of her legs, the same condition of her arms would classify her as "quad" rather than "para".

Yes, it would be nice if we were all inherently sensitive to this nuance. That isn't the case, so I appreciate that your comment actually attempted to inform rather than simply castigating like sibling comments.

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