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Advice on buying a car, wheelchair, scooter or mobility aid. |
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Information about where to go for vehicle adaptations and suppliers of mobility products. |
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General guidance on your legal rights as a disabled road user. |
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Advice about tax, Parking badges and other benefits for disabled persons. |
Background
The Mobility Information Service was founded by the late David Griffiths MBE in 1979, to provide advice and guidance for people with mobility restrictive disabilities. Comprising of a team of disabled drivers it quickly developed a range of specialized and innovative services and was the first advisory service to confine its work entirely to mobility problems.
Within a year of being launched plans were in hand to introduce driver assessment, and MIS became the first voluntary organization in Britain to offer full driver assessment to disabled people.
Although working from extremely
primitive, cramped premises just 2x4 meters, MIS offered a full driver assessment
service using a range of adapted cars both on private track and on the highway.
The vehicles came from members of the team, whose enthusiasm was reflected
in their generosity and trust, whilst selected professional drivers provided
the expertise. These professional came from all walks of life, and had a multiplicity
of driver experience. Most were RoSPA or IAM Advanced Drivers, but whatever
their experiences behind the wheel, they had one thing in common – disability.
Less than two years later work began on what was to become Britain’s first mobile driver assessment rig. Housed in a special trailer and towed by the assessment car, complete with hand controls, it visited many centres throughout the country before being completely rebuilt and computerised. Computerisation made transportation more risky, and eventually The Mobile Service was suspended in favour of a better more comprehensive facility ‘in-house’.
Thanks to the National Lottery, our centre obtained the most modern Driver Assessment unit in Britain, able to measure movement and strength to a fine degree, and capable of meeting the needs of perhaps 90% of disabled people wishing to drive.
Working alongside others with similar
aims, David's input was invaluable in establishing the
Following David's sudden and unexpected death in December 1999, the Mobility Information Service, having met many of its initial aims, has chosen to return to its origins as a first class information service specialising in mobility issues.
The team still consists mainly of drivers with disability, guaranteeing that special understanding that comes with personal experience.
