Disabled driver:
Acceleration and Brake

By moving the function of the pedals to a lever you can use your hand to accelerate and brake. Pull the lever back to speed up and press it forward to brake. Hand controls are available in several different designs and some even house the most common electrical functions in your car such as high beams, turn indicators and horn. Hand controls are usually installed in vehicles with automatic transmission.

Terminology: Described above are the push pull hand controls. There are also radial hand controls, slider and vertical slider hand controls.

You can customize the pedals in several ways. For example, a left side accelerator moves the accelerator pedal to the left side. A pedal extension helps you with reach and a pedal guard prevents accidental use of the pedals. If you share the car with someone who uses the standard pedals, modifications like these are usually easy to take out and put back in as needed.

Terminology: Other common names for these pedal modifications are left foot accelerator, flip-up pedal extensions, quick release pedal extensions, pedal protection and pedal cover.

An adaptation that moves the function of the accelerator pedal to a ring mounted under or on top of the steering wheel. Accelerate by pressing the steering wheel and the gas ring together. Release the ring to stop accelerating. A gas ring does not include a brake which means you must either combine it with a lever brake or use the brake pedal.

A brake booster makes the brake require less force and movement to engage the brakes. This adjustment can be made on both pedal and hand control brakes.

Terminology: This form of adaptation is also known as reduced effort braking, brake booster or vacuum assisted brakes.