My mechanic just got out of a van and looked at his pants. When he kneeled on the carpet, both knees became covered with a black combination of dirt and hydraulic oil from the wheelchair lift. It's just another day fixing lifts.
Over the years, we have seen it all and very little is good.
It's not just dirt or the occasional bag of fast food trash. We've found dead animals, dirty diapers, dog hair, leaves, hay, milkshakes left in a cup holder for two weeks, and, of course fecal matter. All of this attracts bugs who grow big and fat feasting on McDonald's leftovers, just like the rest of us.
It's not all dirt. Two older ladies brought their van into us for repairs. When we opened up the glovebox we discovered a half-kilo of marijuana.
Once we cut the steel side-wall of a rubber-wheeled trolly car and had a flood of water pour out of the supposedly enclosed compartment. This was followed by a plague of cockroaches surfing on the last of the water as it poured out.
More than once, a mechanic has slid into the driver's seat of a van or car, only to find himself sitting in a warm puddle of urine.
We understand everyone has problems and keeping a vehicle clean inside and out is difficult for an able-abodied person and even more difficult for someone with a disability. But, extreme sloppiness can cause many difficulties. Trash of all kinds can get caught in moving parts, causing motors to burn-out or wires to be pulled-out and short. Not only do mechanics not want to work on a sloppy, dirty vehicle, but they want to do the job as quickly as possible so they can get out of the mess. Service writers and mechanics usually look at a filthy van and assume maintenance has been neglected or the vehicle has been abused, and usually they are right.
It is rare that we encounter a zealously neat customer, like Swede Snodgrass. An ex military officer with MS, Swede would make his wife Ann spit-polish the van after every drive. Then, she would park it in the garage. A little tennis ball on a string hanging from the ceiling of the garage marked the exact spot where the van was to be parked.
Swede, we appreciated the effort.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Thursday, June 5, 2008
OEM's Don't Make Accessible Products
Ford, Chrysler, GM, Toyota and most other vehicle OEM's (Original Equipment Manufacturer) don't make accessible products.
Most of them will admit that they don't make accessible products. It simply isn't possible to make one-of-a-kind items on an assembly line. Ford, the inventor of the assembly line, made all his Model-T's one color, black. You could have any color you wanted, as long as it was black. This product uniformity gave him the ability to reduce the cost of the cars and bring them to the common man.
Over the years, however, the car business has changed. Now manufacturers must offer dozens of colors, many different models, and meet complicated safety and environmental standards. Building a car is no longer a relatively simple thing. So, you would suppose accessibility could be built into new vehicles as easily as voice-activation or an MP3 connection.
Unfortunately, exactly the opposite is happening. Under the pressure of meeting federal safety regulations and avoiding potential lawsuits, the OEM engineers are running for cover. Every time a safety item is added no consideration is given to adapting the vehicle for use by a person with a disability. When engineers from the vehicle converters ask, they are told not to remove any of the safety equipment to do their modifications.
It is a never-ending Catch-22. Ford's Econoline series full-sized vans, GM's full-sized vans and Chrysler's Sprinter all have parked their airbag control systems under the front driver seat. As the result, adding a power seat base or removing the seat and modifying the floor so someone could drive from the wheelchair is much more difficult. And, all of the manufacturers don't want the control systems moved.
Ford has limited the availability of Econoline conversion-ready chassis for lowered floors. Ford also has added a new Roll Control System (RCS) to the Club Wagon version of it's Econoline series. In order not to interfere with this computerized stability system, Ford does not want tops or cargo doors raised. GM's large wagon, the Savanna, now has side impact airbags which cannot be removed so the side cargo door can be raised or modified so a lift with an upper support, like the Braun Vangater, can be installed.
The list of these problems is endless. The solutions are expensive. The guys who modify these vehicles to accommodate people with disabilities are forced to re-do the work of the OEM's and assume liability for the safety of that part of the vehicle.
This is an expensive proposition, and usually exceeds the $1,000.00 allowance the automakers give for modification assistance.
On top of everything else, the new hybrid, electric and fuel-efficient vehicles are not capable of receiving any extensive modifications, like a lowered floor or raised top. This leaves the severely disabled motorist with very few options, except to drive gas-guzzlers with expensive hand-made conversions.
This scenario will only change in one of three ways, a lawsuit against the OEM's, which is very unlikely, government assistance, or constant pressure on the manufacturers by disabled consumers.
My recommendation would be for consumers with disabilities to apply pressure to the automakers wherever possible. Ultimately, accommodating persons with disabilities will make their vehicles more friendly to use and increase their sales. In the end, they will be helping themselves, they just don't know it, yet.
Most of them will admit that they don't make accessible products. It simply isn't possible to make one-of-a-kind items on an assembly line. Ford, the inventor of the assembly line, made all his Model-T's one color, black. You could have any color you wanted, as long as it was black. This product uniformity gave him the ability to reduce the cost of the cars and bring them to the common man.
Over the years, however, the car business has changed. Now manufacturers must offer dozens of colors, many different models, and meet complicated safety and environmental standards. Building a car is no longer a relatively simple thing. So, you would suppose accessibility could be built into new vehicles as easily as voice-activation or an MP3 connection.
Unfortunately, exactly the opposite is happening. Under the pressure of meeting federal safety regulations and avoiding potential lawsuits, the OEM engineers are running for cover. Every time a safety item is added no consideration is given to adapting the vehicle for use by a person with a disability. When engineers from the vehicle converters ask, they are told not to remove any of the safety equipment to do their modifications.
It is a never-ending Catch-22. Ford's Econoline series full-sized vans, GM's full-sized vans and Chrysler's Sprinter all have parked their airbag control systems under the front driver seat. As the result, adding a power seat base or removing the seat and modifying the floor so someone could drive from the wheelchair is much more difficult. And, all of the manufacturers don't want the control systems moved.
Ford has limited the availability of Econoline conversion-ready chassis for lowered floors. Ford also has added a new Roll Control System (RCS) to the Club Wagon version of it's Econoline series. In order not to interfere with this computerized stability system, Ford does not want tops or cargo doors raised. GM's large wagon, the Savanna, now has side impact airbags which cannot be removed so the side cargo door can be raised or modified so a lift with an upper support, like the Braun Vangater, can be installed.
The list of these problems is endless. The solutions are expensive. The guys who modify these vehicles to accommodate people with disabilities are forced to re-do the work of the OEM's and assume liability for the safety of that part of the vehicle.
This is an expensive proposition, and usually exceeds the $1,000.00 allowance the automakers give for modification assistance.
On top of everything else, the new hybrid, electric and fuel-efficient vehicles are not capable of receiving any extensive modifications, like a lowered floor or raised top. This leaves the severely disabled motorist with very few options, except to drive gas-guzzlers with expensive hand-made conversions.
This scenario will only change in one of three ways, a lawsuit against the OEM's, which is very unlikely, government assistance, or constant pressure on the manufacturers by disabled consumers.
My recommendation would be for consumers with disabilities to apply pressure to the automakers wherever possible. Ultimately, accommodating persons with disabilities will make their vehicles more friendly to use and increase their sales. In the end, they will be helping themselves, they just don't know it, yet.
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