Products: Wheelchair Access Products

Making the built environment friendlier to wheelchairs is important when you live every day life in a wheelchair. This page contains commercial product resources to help you find ideas and products to make environments more accessible.

Don't forget to use the non-commercial information resources in the Community Living Section of WheelchairNet to learn more about each of these topics.

Dimensions for Wheelchairs

  • A rule of thumb for estimating the width of a doorway or space a wheelchair will need: add 7-9" (for the wheels and hubs) to the seat width of the wheelchair. Therefore, a 16" wide wheelchair would need a minimum of 23" inches to squeeze through. You need to add more inches to allow for hands and knuckles. An extra 2" can be gained in the doorway by changing the door hinges to the offset type.
  • Building and Facilities Guidelines for Accommodating Wheelchairs

Home Modification Products

  • Accessible Structures - product resources to make a home accessible.
  • Adaptive Access - adaptive equipment and accessibility products specialists.
  • Accessible Environments - supplier of accessibility products and equipment.
  • HandiRamp - design and build custom ramp products.
  • Tapmaster - converts any faucet to convenient hands-free operation.
  • Tub-Master - folding shower doors  & bathroom accessibility.
  • Turtle Homes - manufactured barrier-free homes.
  • WingIts - a patented grab bar system that eliminates the need for blocking and reconstruction.

Home Modification Design Services

Ramps

Elevators, Porch Lifts and Stairglides

Elevators, Porch Lift and Stairglide Sales and Service Companies

  • Abbey Access Group, Inc. - Phoenix, AZ and Fresno, CA - home elevators, dumbwaiters, stair lifts and access lifts.
  • Access Industries - Grandview, MO - stairway lifts, wheelchair lifts, and elevators.
  • Adapting Aids - Southern California - elevators and lifts for residential or commercial use.
  • Creative Mobility - Southern California - porch lifts.
  • Davis Mobility Company - Irving, TX - residential and commercial lifts.
  • EazyLift Stairlifts - Calfornia and New York - install and service stairlifts & residential elevators
  • Flinchbaugh Company Inc. - York, PA - stairclimbs, wheelchair lifts, and dumbwaiters.
  • Marietta Mobility - Marietta, OH - stairwells lifts, scooter lifts, and wheelchair lifts.
  • Marshall Elevators - Pittsburgh, PA - residential & commercial elevators and stair lifts.
  • Max-Ability - Santa Rosa, CA - porch lifts, stair lifts, elevator and bath/pool/spa lifts.
  • MC Mobility Systems - Cincinnati, Columbus & Mentor, OH - pool & spa lifts, stair & porch lifts.
  • Mobility Express - Holiday, FL - elevators and stair lifts
  • New England Medical System - Vermont area home lifts and stair glides
  • SpinLife - Internet only liftchairs, stairlifts and patient lifts.
  • Whitaker - New England locations for installation of lifts, elevators, inclined platform lifts, vertical platform lifts, and ceiling lifts.

Door Openers

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Gates

  • KidCo, Inc. - corner protectors, gates, door postioners to make adaptive enviromments more safe.

Airplanes

  • Columbia - aviation products manufactured by Columbia including AirMaster and JetMate aircraft boarding chair.

Boats

  • Jet Dock Boat Lifts - drive-on docks that replace traditional lifts, davits & trailers providing a convenient dry-dock for outboard boats, stern drives, jet boats and inboard ski boats of all shapes and sizes.
  • Life-Essentials - specialized lifts for boats.

Playground Equipment

Park Products: Picnic Tables, Fire-rings and Benches

Signage

Trailers for Transporting Wheechairs and Scooters

Wheelchair & Scooter Covers

  • The Cover Connection - covers for wheelchair and scooter transportation and storage.
  • Smith & Hawken - sold to cover lawn furniture but makes an excellent chair cover.

Automobile and Van Conversions

  • Daimler Chrysler Automobility Program - list of vehicle adaptive equipment installlers.
  • Drive-Master Co., Inc. - click on "custom conversion."
  • Four Winds - vehicle design for traveling and camping opportunities for everyone.
  • Freedom Motors USA Inc. - build and sell accessible conversion vehicles.
  • Ford Mobility Motoring - rebate for vehicle modication.
  • GM Mobility Program - rebate for vehicle modication.
  • GOVAN+ - an upholstered wheelchair designed and crash tested for use as a passenger seat in a minivan. The user, sitting in the chair, can be rolled up a portable ramps and locked into a docking plate mounted to the floor in place of any passenger seat.
  • Handicaps Inc. - SuperArm 2000: silent, all electric with no platform & no hydraulics.
  • HandiRamp - a low cost alternative to a lift.
  • Independent Mobility Systems Inc.- lowered floor, Chrysler or Ford Windstar Rampvan.
  • Rausch Technik - website is in German - A power pull a wheelchair into a sedan or van. No US distributor; but hopefully soon.
  • RollX Vans - manufacturers and distributors of vehicle conversions and modifications
  • Ricon - a folding platform lift that doesn't obscure vision through the side windows.
  • Sunset Vans - manufactures and modifies vehicles for individuals with disability.
  • View Point Mobility - manufacturers of the "VISION" rear entrance lowered floor minivan wheelchair conversion.

Wheelchair and Scooter Lifts for Vehicles

Hand Controls for Automobiles

Wheelchair Tie-downs and Occupant Restraints for Motor Vehicles

Special Needs Car Seats

  • An overview on Special Needs Car Seats from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Contains a non-WWW list of manufacturers. Including the following:
  • BESI Manufacturing - an adjustable harness that interfaces with seatbelts to aid in sitting in car or bus.
  • Columbia Medical - positioning seats suitable for children 20 to 102 lbs., unable to sit unassisted.
  • EZ-On Vest - for transportation in cars or buses, for children or adults.
  • Snug Seat - Gorilla car seat for children with positioning needs who weight 20 to 105 lbs.
  • Mulholland - car seats.
  • Sammons Preston - Tumbleforms seat called Carrie
  • Kidkart - a division of Sunrise Medical; search on KIDKART.

Vehicle Modification and Conversion Sales and Service Companies

Be sure to look for and ask about National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association (NMEDA) membership when locating a reliable and ethical company.

Pre-owned Equipment/Recycled Equipment/Equipment Exchanges

  • ABLEDATA - Links to Sites with advertisements for used Assistive Technology Products.
  • Disabled Dealer - a national network of regional franchises in the United States that sell pre-owned as well as new equipment: homes, RV's, wheelchairs, scooters, vans, lifts and more.
  • Disable Hotline - on Delphi. Lots of 800 numbers to search on "disabled hotline".
  • The Disability Equipment Register - a resource in the UK for locating used equipment.
  • e-bay - go the online auction and search on "wheelchair." You will get everything from a "Barbie in a wheelchair" to a real wheelchair and accessories. It is definitely a "buyer-beware situation" but many used wheelchairs are advertised there.
  • Florida Assistive Technology Recycling/Matching Program
  • Mobility Auction - sell used medical equipments.
  • NEAT Marketplace - the New England Assistive Technology Marketplace has an equipment restoration center.
  • Recycled Equipment Exchange Project (REEP) - a project of the Pennsylvania Initiative on Assistive Technology.
  • Silver Cross - information on how to find recycled and new stair lifts, ceiling lifts, scooters etc.
  • Wheels for the World, a project of Joni and Friends, that refurbishes wheelchairs and ships them overseas with parts, technician, and seating therapist to ensure they fit.
  • Wheels for Humanity - an organization that collects used wheelchairs, restores and distributes them in partnership with other relief and development agencie in places where wheelchairs are unattainable luxuries.

Last Updated: 3-2-2006

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Contact information:
  Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology  • Telephone: 412.624.6279

 © Copyright 2006 University of Pittsburgh. All rights reserved.
No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to WheelchairNet and the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology.

Please note: This information is provided a archival information from the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Wheeled Mobility from 1993 to 2002.

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