First time at the IAA with exhibition and symposium
Individual mobility concepts for all stages of life
Frankfurt am Main, 7 September 2009. Individual mobility is a basic human need. Cars are not only a means of getting around, but also an expression of personality and a slice of freedom. Particularly for people with physical limitations, whether due to age or disability, the number one means of transport is the car. Roughly one million passenger cars in Germany are registered for these users. The people affected retain their individual mobility despite handicaps because conversion companies adapt cars to meet personal and physical requirements.
For the first time at the IAA a specialist symposium will be held (25 September) on this subject, accompanied by an exhibition at Stand D30 in Hall 4.0 lasting for the total duration of the trade show. The first joint symposium "Mobile at any stage" arranged by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), the German association of converters of vehicles for the mobility-impaired (Verband der Fahrzeugumrüster für mo-bilitätseingeschränkte Personen, VfmP), DEKRA, and the German Road Safety Council (DVR) underscores the great importance that the vehicle manufacturers and physically handicapped persons attach to maintaining individual mobility. Academic and road safety experts will join vehicle converters to present the latest findings concerning mo-bility concepts for all stages of life, and discuss with affected customers their special needs and their expectations of automotive mobility.
First of all VDA President Matthias Wissmann and VFMP chairman Christian Fröhlich will welcome the participants, and then Dr. Martina Albrecht, a senior government offi-cial from the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt), will speak on "Senior citizens in road traffic - an accident risk? Tackling cliches with facts" and give an overview of the actual relevance of this age group to road safety from a statistical point of view. Burk-hard Gerkens and Welf Stankowitz from the German Road Safety Council (DVR) will talk about the criteria for a car tailored to senior citizens. They will look at the results of a DVR survey and examine the question of the role that modern driver-assistance sys-tems have in cars for senior citizens. The traffic psychologist Prof. Bernhard Schlag from the Dresden University of Technology will give a lecture entitled "Mobility at all stages of life - analyzed from a traffic psychology standpoint" going into the psychologi-cally determined limitations on the mobility-impaired when travelling on the roads.
The concluding panel discussion with the speakers and Dr. Karl-Heinz Mauss, a spe-cialist in traffic psychology at DEKRA Automobil GmbH, and some of those personally affected, Prof. Kai Paschen and Walter Zöller, will be dedicated to the questions of the precise nature of the handicaps of disabled or older persons, the resulting demands on other road-users and on the OEMs and vehicle-converters, and what the ideal car tailored to the needs of senior citizens should be like. The event will be chaired throughout by Siegfried Brockmann, head of the German Insurers Accident Research (UDV).
The specialist symposium will be held on 25 September, from 10.00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m., at Stand D30 in Hall 4.0 on the Frankfurt trade fair grounds. For the whole duration of the IAA attractive vehicles equipped especially for the disabled and the elderly will be on display on an area of more than 800 sq m, demonstrating intelligent features such as swing and swivel seats, proximity warning systems and head-up displays tailored to the needs of these groups.
All visitors to the IAA are cordially invited to view a selection of converted vehicles and try them out, testing their driving skills on the "Test and Drive" area in front of Hall 9, in line with the IAA slogan "A Moving Experience."
Access to the trade fair grounds and to the special event is disabled-friendly. Holders of a disabled person's parking badge may use parking spaces right by the hall where the event is taking place. Disabled persons whose ID card is marked "B," and wheelchair users with any degree of disability, will be admitted to the IAA along with an attendant free of charge.
Visitors can take part in the symposium "Mobile at any stage" and many other events and activities at the 63rd IAA Cars, which takes place in Frankfurt am Main from 17 to 27 September 2009. Comprehensive information about the trade fair, e.g. on special shows, opening times and advance ticket sales, is available on the Internet at the IAA web site: www.iaa.de.
