The country’s Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) has given many physical or medically handicapped or disabled persons the freedom and opportunities to be mobile where before, most are confined at home in bed, crutches or wheelchairs.

Being able to get to work and do shopping over short distance has never been easier with initiatives that bring road vehicle technologies to products that disabled persons can use.

You now have motorized and electric wheelchairs. And one that has extended the reach of disabled people beyond where the wheelchair can bring you is the emerging modes of private personal road transport vehicles specifically designed to cater to the growing active lifestyle of the disabled. These are your mobility scooters.

A simple Google search online will return pages of countless merchants offering various models of fresh from the factory mobility scooters for sale as well as pre-owned or used mobility scooters. The industry for mobility aids targeting disabled persons call the contraption variously as electric scooter or power-operated scooter.

They are basically a three or wheeled scooters derived from the 2-wheeled low engine-displacement motorcycles and scooters. Most disabled and geriatric people prefer them over electric wheelchairs which give them an aura of really being sick, disabled and invalid. Scooters make them look more fit and smart on the road.

Types of Mobility Scooters

Using 3-4 rear wheels give them better road stability without relying on the driver’s sense of balance. There are two types, electric scooters which battery-powered requiring overnight or regular charging to give the battery the power to drive it and the usual gasoline-powered using single or double stroke combustion engines.

Under the Use of Invalid Carriages on the Highways Regulations of 1988, these powered scooters will not exceed a maximum speed of 4mph fall under Class 2 and do not require to be registered with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

There are more powerful models that can exceed this rate but tops at 8mph. These require DVLA registration and are required to be fitted with any device that can limit their maximum speeds to 4mph. They need to be licensed to the name of the disabled user under the disabled category of the taxation class.

But unlike regular land vehicles, these scooters, classed as invalid carriages under the law do not required VED exemption and are exempt from first-time registration fees nor are they required to display any registration plates.