Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles
The good news is that there's a wide selection of wheelchair accessible vehicles on the market today that offer many functional and practical features to help you efficiently zip around town. The bad news is that it's not going to be a hot, little, red convertible sports car.
Just because you're restricted to a larger vehicle, such as a van, doesn't mean you don't have choices. In fact, there's no shortage of choices when selecting an appropriate wheelchair accessible vehicle. Basically, you have to customize a vehicle to suit your needs and there are many considerations involved in this process.
One of the most popular choices for a wheelchair user is the minivan for a lot of the same reasons that the general public loves this sensible family vehicle. Minivans are easy to manoeuvre, they offer plenty of room, they are affordable ($33,000 to $55,000 plus cost of modifications) and they have a nice looking exterior. For someone in a wheelchair, the spacious interior allows for movement in a chair and the compact frame makes driving and parking fairly painless.
There are 2 popular conversions to make to a minivan. The first is a lowered floor with a side-entry ramp arrangement. Lowered floors offer about 10 additional inches compared to an unmodified minivan. This allows the user enough space to drive seated in their wheelchair. The negative is that in order to achieve this conversion, the entire minivan must be disassembled and rebuilt. This, in effect, results in a potentially uncomfortable, bumpy ride, with significantly decreased ground clearance.
The second option is a rear-entry conversion. A sloped channel is installed down the centre of the vehicle so that entry and exit is preformed out the back. This makes for very easy loading and unloading from a standard parking spot because the wheelchair occupant doesn't have to worry about cars parked on either side. The drawback with rear-entry is that the driver's seat doesn't allow for a wheelchair to take the position. This type of conversion is best suited for passengers in wheelchairs, not drivers. Note that raised-roof vans are also available for more headroom, but these require a wheelchair lift, as they don't have a lowered floor to accommodate a ramp.
To accommodate larger wheelchairs consider a full-size van. These roomy vehicles offer a floor-to-ceiling height of minimum 56-inches, with the option of lowering the floor for even more space. Full-sized vans have plenty of room for a wheelchair, the occupant, additional passengers and gear. The upside is they can accommodate a wheelchair user in the driver's seat. The downside is they need lots of room to park and you'll find that gas can get very expensive.
