In many countries, the community has a legal obligation to help persons with disabilities to participate in society on the same level as other groups. One aspect of such participation is access to unlimited and spontaneous transportation through the ability to drive a car. In the case of persons with cerebral palsy (CP), the possibility of becoming a driver is related to several factors such as the severity of the impairment, the individual's financial situation and the quality of driver education. One of the aims of this study was to analyse the education process among learner drivers with CP, in order to understand where and why problems are encountered. A further aim was to enhance the development of test methods for predicting the ability of a person with CP to become a licensed driver. In the analysis of the learning process, logbooks from one of the two national Swedish centres for educating disabled learner drivers were analysed. The analysis showed that certain key tasks in the education process were critical for the outcome in terms of becoming a licensed driver or not. The results suggest that it may be possible to develop a test battery, which, in combination with an analysis of the performance of these key tasks, will assist prediction of the outcome of driving education for persons with CP. For the covering abstract see ITRD E113725 (C 22328 CD-ROM).
Abstract