Wheelchairs, vans and things - a thread

The below is a thread I posted to Bluesky and Mastodon off the back of a discussion I had with a mother at my local doctors surgery. I want to expand on some of this in future posts, but I'm just sticking this here for the moment.

Just had an interesting discussion with a woman who's son has Muscular Distrophy.

He's using a power assist chair at the moment but is going to be needing a full power chair sooner rather than later.

This means they're going to need a vehicle that can converted.

Now the NDIS will only pay for a conversion if the vehicle is three years old or younger, which means that if you're not in the position to buy a new or near new car then you're having to shop around the second hand market. Hoping something comes up.

"That's alright there are wheelchair taxis aren't there?"

Well no. Wheelchair taxis are an increasingly rare breed, which means that what you have is an increasingly isolated group of people who cannot function as part of society.

So what if the NDIS didn't just cover the conversion but offered a path to vehicle ownership?

This is just spitballing but you increase the pool of vehicles that can be onsold into the second hand market.

I have no details worked out but it's worth a thought

So what if the NDIS didn't just cover the conversion but offered a path to vehicle ownership?

This is just spitballing but you increase the pool of vehicles that can be onsold into the second hand market.

I have no details worked out but it's worth a thought .