A man drives a car designed for the disabled on Monday in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province. Yuan Jingzhi / for China Daily

More than 300 physically disabled people from across the country submitted a written petition to the country's authorities on Tuesday, demanding they be allowed to drive vehicles.

Observing the country's first Physical Disability Awareness Day, which fell on Wednesday, 308 representatives of the physically disabled signed their names on a petition and sent copies to the China Disabled Person's Federation (CDPF) and six related ministries and administrations.

A CDPF official said they have yet to receive the petition.

In March, the CDPF, the ministries and administrations jointly issued a notice to encourage local governments to issue driving licenses to disabled people.

The notice came close on the heels of a guideline published by the Ministry of Public Security in December 2009, which came into effect on April 1, allowing, for the first time in the country, disabled people who have lost their legs, fingers or hearing ability to drive specialized automatic vehicles with the help of auxiliary devices, like audiophones.

However, disabled complained that the policy was not implemented properly.

"The actual situation is not very optimistic," said Luan Qiping, head of the China Disabled People's Mutual Help Association, a Beijing-based NGO.

"Only very few disabled people have driving licenses. While for most people who meet the criteria of the guideline, the promise of driving licenses vanished into thin air," Luan said.

A 2006 government survey showed China had more than 83 million disabled people. Statistics for the number of people qualified to drive are unavailable neither are statistics on the number of driving licenses issued to disabled people.

But according to the website of the China Association of the Physically Disabled Persons, more than 200 disabled people have reportedly received driving licenses since April.

"Sixty percent of city governments are reluctant to give us driving licenses," Luan said, adding that only big cities have driving schools especially for the disabled.

"In Jiangxi province, only driving schools based in the capital, Nanchang, are allowed to enroll disabled students. Plus, the complex procedures we have to go through make it very inconvenient for us to get a license," said a disabled person, surnamed Xie, from the province.