‘Driving means freedom’: Automobility for people with disabilities

Instructor Tina Schmidt-Kiendl wants to show people with disabilities how to be safe and mobile. Photo: dpa/BMW

Tina Schmidt-Kiendl is faster in her wheelchair than some people are on foot. And she stopped feeling arm and shoulder pain from propelling it long ago. Nevertheless, all it takes to remind her that she’s physically disabled is something as simple as a kerb that’s too high.

But there’s one place where the 46-year-old German, whose legs have been paralysed since she suffered a herniated disc, is as mobile as someone who’s perfectly healthy: behind the wheel of her Mini, which she accelerates and brakes using hand controls.