Wheelchair Ramps

Ramp up your mobility with the right wheelchair ramp

While wheelchairs help the physically challenged regain their mobility, sometimes the wheelchair needs help to help its rider. This help comes in the form of wheelchair ramps, which permit wheelchairs, wheeled walkers and scooters to navigate over stairs and thresholds and paraplegics to board vehicles without assistance.

Wheelchair ramps may be composed of a single solid panel for cresting short rises or a set of folding, collapsible or telescoping panels to reach the side or rear opening of a van or sport utility vehicle. Ramps come in both lightweight, portable models and bariatric models designed to carry the weight of a heavy-duty wheelchair and its occupant.

When buying wheelchair ramps, you need to know the total rise (height in inches) the wheelchair needs to climb to determine the right ramp length. Measure this distance as follows:

1. For wheelchair ramps to go over stairs, measure the height of each step and add them together.
2. For wheelchair ramps for cars and vans, measure vertically from the ground to the highest point inside the vehicle the wheelchair must reach.
3. For wheelchair ramps for porches and stoops, measure vertically from the ground to the highest point the wheelchair needs to reach.

 

Buy your wheelchair ramps where you buy your wheelchairs

Companies that make and sell wheelchairs often sell wheelchair ramps as well to provide convenient one-stop shopping for your needs.
Try: The Scooter Store sells a line of ramps for wheelchairs: solid ramps, threshold ramps, extended reach units and single- and multi-fold styles of folding wheelchair ramp. American Wheelchairs carries a wide selection of scooter and wheelchair ramps, including residential and commercial grade modular ramps, and offers secure online ordering.

Get easy-to-carry portable wheelchair ramps

If you're an on-the-go person in a wheelchair, having a ramp you can take along with you is a big help. Portable ramps can fold up like a suitcase or roll up like a newspaper.
Try: 4 Medical Supplies features portable ramps in single-fold ramps with carrying handles, multi-fold ramps that expand to 10 feet in length and roll-up ramps that stiffen with the help of plastic sleeves. Express Ramps stocks several kinds of aluminum wheelchair ramp and offers an online Ramp Wizard to help new buyers choose the right ramp.

Mobilize with wheelchair ramps for cars and vans

While most people think of a van equipped with a power lift, many times a less-expensive ramp is all a wheelchair user needs to get into a vehicle, if the person has sufficient mobility.
Try: 4 Medical Supplies offers side-load and rear-load permanent wheelchair ramps for vans, while Homecare Suppliers, LLC can match a ramp to any vehicle you specify.

Save money with used wheelchair ramps

If money is tight, or you're only confined to a wheelchair for a short period of time, there's no need to buy a new ramp when you can get good-quality used equipment.
Try: Discount Wheelchair Ramps.com offers a selection of used wheelchair ramps, carriers and lifts, many in like-new condition with a full manufacturer’s warranty.

Build ramps for wheelchairs if you can't buy

While portable wheelchair ramps are great to provide temporary access, long-term handicapped access means building wheelchair ramps for permanent use.
Try: The Home Wheelchair Ramp Project features online instructions for designing and building modular wheelchair ramps and long-tread, low-rise steps. It includes a manual, videos and supplementary articles.

 

• You should never tilt wheelchair ramps higher than one inch of rise for every 12 inches of length, but wheelchair users with less than normal upper body strength may need gentler rises than that.

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