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Driver Rehabilitation Institute & Our Impact

Driver Rehabilitation Institute

The Intersection of Driver Training and Rehabilitation

The Driver Rehabilitation Institute (DRI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides a spectrum of educational services centered on teens and adults with neurological challenges and driving. DRI provides these services to leading researchers, occupational therapists, driving school instructors, neurorehabilitation facilities, and other professionals.

Our projects include work with:

Occupational Therapy Tools

Visual Search Skills for Driving

These occupational therapy tools are low-cost solutions for intervention, documentation, and evaluation.

Donate

With your help, we are improving driving outcomes and quality of life related to transportation.

Driver Rehabilitation Institute was founded in 2005. All donations help us improve our products and get the word out. The cost of Drive Focus and the other products are not fully covered by sales. If you enjoy our products, help us keep them available and affordable through a donation.

About Driver Rehabilitation Institute and Dr. Miriam Monahan

"I strongly believe that Driving and Community Mobility enables vocational, academic, and social opportunities."

Miriam Monahan is the founder and director of Driver Rehabilitation Institute and a leader in the field of cognition and driving.

Download

Drive Focus App

The first research-based driver training app that takes your driving to the next level. Enhance your reaction speed and road awareness, sharpening your ability to detect and respond to real-world driving scenarios. Build confidence behind the wheel every time you use it.

iPad, M1 Mac & Vision Pro

Android & Chromebook

Windows 11

Amazon Android & Fire Tablets

Frequently Asked Questions

I did not receive an email verification. What do I do?

If you have not received the email verification in your inbox after 3 minutes, check your spam or junk folder.

In your Spam or Junk Folder, look for a message with a subject line that says No-Reply.
When you find it indicate that it is not spam or junk. That will move the message into your in-box and allow you to Verify your account or enable your Forgot Password request.

Can I use Drive Focus on a phone?

Drive Focus is not compatible with any phones because the screen size is too small.

Drive Focus is compatible with these devices: iPads, Android tablets, Amazon Fire Tablets, MacBooks with M1 chips, Chromebooks, Windows 11, and Apple Vision Pro. If you don’t have access to one of these devices and cost is a consideration, we recommend Amazon Fire Tablets, Android tablets, and Google Chromebooks.

Sometimes I don’t hear the roadway sounds and sometimes I don’t hear the Drive Focus app sounds.

In addition to the volume control on your tablet, there are two other things that affect the sound.

1. When taking a Drive, you can adjust roadway and background sound volume using the slider bar.

2. You can also turn on and off the roadway sounds and the acknowledgement chimes and beeps in the Drive Focus app settings

I want to buy a device for Drive Focus, what size screen should I use for Drive Focus?”

Use the biggest screen you can. Here’s why:

When you use Drive Focus, you are looking at the road from the perspective of a driver. If you are using a small screen, it will be difficult to pick out things that are far away from the driver, like an upcoming traffic light or sign.

We do not recommend screens smaller than 10 inches or 25.4cm.

What Our Users Say

I tell all my beginner drivers about drive focus. It is especially helpful for students are missing important things or hazards.  My students have told me: I think it’s great!. It’s smooth & simple. It was helpful for learning to drive! It wasn’t glitchy or buggy, where I clicked actually works.

Maryfrances Gross

University of Kentucky 

As a clinician in a neuro clinic, I use Drive Focus with many of my patients. It's a terrific home program with objective feedback on speed of processing and visual attention. Patients love that it looks like driving and enjoy trying to improve their scores.

Beth Rolland

Upstate University Hospital of Syracuse

Drive Focus has been well received by Australian Occupational Therapists at two national conferences and during many workshops, with excitement about the opportunities for our clients and their driving. My clients find it easy and fun to use. It was a privilege to support Drive Focus with recording the Melbourne videos.

Megan Coulter

Occupational Therapist

Drive Focus has taken Australia by storm! Driving Well OT in Brisbane collaborated with Miriam to bring Drive Focus to Australia, winning the Australian Road Safety Foundation award in 2021. It’s worldwide OT conference premier was in Melbourne (“Mel-bin”!) in June 2022, with OTs being excited and impressed by the impact Drive Focus can have on clients with executive functioning disorders who want to learn or return to driving. Affordable, accessible, brain-training for driving!

Jenny Gribbin

Occupational Therapist

I recommend Drive Focus to patients who have had strokes, brain injuries, cognitive or visual processing limitations and students with special needs exploring if they are ready to drive. Drive Focus is motivating because it looks like driving. After using Drive Focus my clients are much more relaxed and prepared for driving.

Heather Shields

Owner Pathways Rehabilitation Services, LLC

Drive Focus is the best first step available to assist people who need help learning to drive and lack access to professional assistance.

Bryson

USA

My daughter, who is on the autism spectrum, used Drive Focus to help prepare for behind the wheel driving lessons. Her ability to recognize and prioritize signals, traffic, and potential hazards increased dramatically. She enjoyed the app and gained a lot of self-confidence.

Kim

USA

I love using Drive Focus with my clients recovering from strokes to work on scanning and processing activities in preparation for driving. I also use Drive Focus with inexperienced drivers to get ready to learn to drive. The app is easy to use, very affordable, and the visuals are great!

Susie Touchinsky

Adaptive Mobility Services, LLC

I highly recommend Drive Focus to help prepare a student to get behind the wheel of a car. I went from not knowing where to look while driving to being able to recognize the most important things for a driver to notice. It doesn't get boring because of the different cities that you drive through as you improve.

Gwen

USA

Latest News

Artificial Intelligence Weighs In On Drive Focus

The Drive Focus app can be a useful tool for people who find it difficult to stay focused while driving, especially if they are prone to distractions such as checking their phone or getting lost in thought. Imagine you are a busy professional who frequently drives long distances for work. You often find yourself getting...

Australia Road Safety Award 2021

When Jenny Gribbin, owner of Driving Well Occupational Therapy in Queensland found her client benefited from Drive Focus, she also realized that most of the interactive drives were from the U.S. and Canada, where they drive on the “wrong” side of the road. Jenny filmed drives in Brisbane and arranged for a colleague in Melbourne...

The Two Pillars Of Defensive Driving

What is defensive driving? Defensive driving can conjure up images from movie scenes where the driver executed a maneuver to avoid a crash by pushing the vehicle to its limits. However, a driver practicing defensive driving strategies is being proactive and therefore rarely if ever has to make quick evasive maneuvers. Defensive driving is implementing...

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