One in four people experience a roadside emergency every year. For people who require wheelchairs for mobility, this can be a particular difficult situation.
ADA Nationwide Roadside Assistance was created to address this situation by providing emergency roadside assistance tailored both to the needs of people who use mobility devices, and their modified vehicles. It is currently the only national one of it's kind in the U.S.
In 1999, Patricia Kosta, a veteran of the auto travel club industry, designed and manufactured a wheelchair-accessible tow truck featuring a wheelchair lift to transport stranded wheelchair users. But Kosta quickly realized that it would take more than a few tow truck to handle the needs of disabled travelers around the country.
And so she created ADA Nationwide. The membership-based, for-profit travel club works with more than 47,000 towing and road service providers around the country, to offer tow service for adapted vehicles, and accessible transit service for stranded drivers.
Members are covered whether in their own vehicle or someone else's, so long as they have their membership card with them.
In some cases, a member might have to initially pay for accessible transportation, and the company would reimburse 100% of the cost, up to the mileage limit, which varies according to the membership package. ADA Nationwide says it follows the industry standard of providing four tow/transports a year.
Response time is within one hour with an average wait time of 45 minutes.
Membership plans start at about $140. For more information visist the American Drivers Alliance website.
Roadside Assistance
Empowering Drivers With Disabilities
That's exactly what the Adaptive Driving Alliance is all about. The group consists of vehicle modification dealers that are certified by the Quality Assurance Program(QAP), a program developed and managed by the National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association (NMEDA). The dealers provide the sort of things reported about here on Wheelchair Highway. They provide van conversions, hand controls, wheelchair/scooter lifts, tie/lock downs, and other adaptive equipment for disabled drivers (and passengers, too but we here at Wheelchair Highway know it's all about driving).
The Adaptive Driving Alliance website is loaded with tons of information and resources for drivers just like us. So check it out!
