The purpose of this study was to provide information on driving characteristics in persons with spinal cord injury through basic statistic analysis of the survey results. The survey was administered to 44 drivers with spinal cord injury. The subjects' general, neurologic and driving characteristics were analyzed, as well as the degree of difficulty in using their vehicles between tetraplegia and paraplegia. The results were as follows: thirty-five (79.6%) of forty-four respondents was men. The average age was 35.0 years old and the age at the time of injury was 29.0 years old. Their neurologic characteristics were tetraplegics 12 (27.3%) and paraplegics 32 (72.2%). Among complete lesions, the highest level those who could drive independently was C7. All the vehicles were equipped with special devices, including "power steering", "automatic transmission" and "hand controls". The vehicles for cervical cord injury were equipped with "grip bars" as well as for the degree of difficulty in using their vehicles, all the subjects felt that "moving the wheelchair in and out of their vehicles" was too difficult for them to do. We suggest that the driver training should be an essential part of the rehabilitation program for patients with spinal cord injuries to maximize their mobility in the community. This training seems to be essential in order to modify the standards of the Handicapped Drivers Ability Test and to aid the driver rehabilitation program in the health insurance payment system. Also, the driver rehabilitation training program should include instruction in that moving wheelchairs in and out of vehicles.

The purposes of this study were to investigate the accomodations for the disabled children of the elementary schools in Suwon and to give helpful information to the parents and teachers for the improvement of the independence of disabled children at school. We measured the ramps, toilets, doorways and other accomodations in 64 elementary schools according to the checklists. The checklists of these facilities were based on the legal requirements of "The Act for the Benefit of the Disabled, Elderly and Pregnant Women". The data was analyzed by descriptive statistics and the test. None of the investigated schools satisfied all the legal requirements of the facilities. Fifteen elementary schools had adequate accomodations for the disabled children which allowed them to move independently from the entrance of the school to their classrooms located on the first floor. Only eight of fifteen schools had elevators to access their classrooms upstairs. The schools were divided into two groups according to their construction dates; before and after April 11th 1998, when "The Act for the Benefit of the Disabled, Elderly and Pregnant Women" took effect. There were statistically significant differences in the number of toilets, the width of the toilet entrance, and the slope of the ramps between the two groups (p<.05). We suggest that the accomodations for the disabled children need to be established on a systematic and on-going basis in the future. The teachers and administrators should be more aware of the legal requirements for appropriate accomodations for the disabled children.