Ability On Wheels - India's first driving school for the physically challenged

Ability On Wheels

India's first driving school for the physically challenged

More about Ability On Wheels

I wish to introduce myself as a differently abled person with a passion for driving. In 2012 I became the first physically challenged person in the country to successfully complete an All India Driving Expedition thereby creating a new National Records in Limca Book of Records. As on date I have on my name 2 National Records in Limca Book of Records. I did my schooling from a reputed school in Dehradun & went on to do my Masters in Science from IIT Roorkee in 1993 & Masters in Technology from IIT Delhi in 1995.

After working in Telecom Sector for ~ 20 years I quit the corporate world last year & decided to work on providing mobility services & solutions to the specially abled people of the country. For this purpose I’ve floated an NGO Ability on Wheels Charitable Trust (www.abilityonwheels.org).

Sir, as you would be aware of Specially Abled people do face lots of challenges & hurdles in mobility. There’s not even a single driving school for the specially abled, there are no wheel chair accessible vehicles & also the public transport is not disability friendly. Since I have myself experienced these hurdles I decided to work on this cause & be a contributor to the society.

Sir there are an estimated 60 million people in the country who are specially abled with mobility restrictions & every year ~ 1 lac people get added in the list.

ABILITY ON WHEELS is an effort to encourage the specially abled people to take a big leap towards leading a normal life by providing mobility & accessibility services & solutions.

Sir, as a first step towards this direction Ability on Wheels has launched a first of its kind in the country driving school exclusively for the differently abled using customized cars in Ahmedabad.

Today the physically challenged people have to first buy a car, get it modified & only then they are provided with a learner’s license. This deprives them of the right to first learn & then buy a car. Also since there is no such driving school they have to learn on their own. Due to this big stumbling block many physically challenged people hesitate in buying a car & hence are deprived of the freedom & independence.

The biggest benefit of this driving school will be that now people can get a learner’s license based on the customized vehicles of the driving school so that they can first learn driving & then go in to buy a car.

Ability on Wheels driving school has cars with various modifications to teach driving to people with the following nature of handicap:

• Problem in the Left Leg
• Problem in the Right Leg
• Problem in both the legs
• Problem in any one arm.

Vision of Ability on Wheels is to have at least one such school in every state.
This initiative is a SKILL DEVELOPMENT program which can also act as a catalyst in employment generation for the economically weaker sections of differently abled people.
We also have a vision to impart driving training to such people & get them recruited as cab drivers or even cab owners.

Personal Details

Name : Harish Kumar
Date of Birth : 22 April 1971
Educational Qualifications : MSc, M Tech
Professional Experience : 20 years in Telecom (Airtel, Reliance, Tata, Shyam etc)
Currently Working as : Founder & Managing Trustee Ability on Wheels Charitable Trust
& Ability on Wheels Driving School
Family Details : Married with 2 kids (daughter & son)

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