Choosing Between A Wheelchair Lift And Wheelchair Ramp

When you're bound to a wheelchair getting in and out of your home, moving to different levels in your home and getting in and out of your car can be a hassle. To make things easier you will need either a wheelchair lift or ramp. Which one should you choose? Both have their own advantages and disadvantages. So if you want to install/buy/build a lift or ramp for your home or van you will need to know these (dis)advantages first.

Wheelchair lift

- Pricey
A wheelchair lift can cost more than a thousand of dollars. Even for the cheapest models you will need to dig about $590 from your pocket. The cheap models only have about 250 lbs lifting capacity so if you happen to have a large body you will need to spend extra to get a lift with higher lifting capacity.

- Maintenance
Just like any other equipment a wheelchair can broke down/malfunction. If you or other people around are tech-savvy (or have technical background) and understand the inner workings of the lift that's good but if it's not the case then you need a backup plan. What will you do when you're stuck upstairs and the lift broke? Do you have anyone to take you down or do you need to call your neighbor to help you or do you need to call the lift dealer and wait a couple hours for them to fix it. Will any of these be acceptable?

+ Doesn't take much space
A wheelchair lift width and length is not much bigger than the wheelchair itself. So when you want to install a lift in your home you don't need to spare much room for it.

+ No assistance needed
An electric wheelchair lift can be used with a push of a button. Even when you got no one to help, your mobility will not be reduced.

+ Ideal when your home have lots of stairs
While a wheelchair ramp is sufficient if you have a one storey house a wheelchair lift is a more ideal solution when you have two storey house. Imagine that you have a teenager who is wheelchair bound and she decided that she want her own room on the second floor for "privacy" reasons. For this case a handicap lift is simply indispensable.

Wheelchair Ramp

- More space required
The number one disadvantage of a wheelchair ramp is you need more space than a lift. For example you use a ramp to get into your van from the side doors. The ramp is 6 feet long so you'll need at least 10 feet of empty space on the side of your van if ever gonna use that ramp.

- Need to be load and unload
Even though portable ramps is convenient you still need get it out of your van then put it on the door for you to use. And when you're done you need to get it off the door and store it back into your car. None of this are required if you have a wheelchair lift installed on your van.

- Limited Vertical Rise
Obviously ramp is not very economical solution for getting into highly elevated sections. For example if the vertical rise 40 inches with 4.8 degrees ramp angle you will need a ramp 39.8 feet long. Buying a ramp that long or building a permanent one will cost you lots of money and not to mention lots of space.

+ Cheaper Than A Lift
You can get good quality ramp for as low as $74 for a two feet ramp. A ramp that short, however, would not be sufficient to get you onto a car. If you need longer ramp the price is naturally more expensive about $25 for each additional foot length.

+ Permanent ramp is easy to build
You can easily find ramp building instructions for your home on the internet with all the details about material, schematic, safety precautions, etc. And by following the instructions you can have your own ramp ( and wheelchair accessible home ) in no time.

+ Portable ramp is easy to carry around
If you need a ramp to get you onto your car a portable ramp is certainly needed. These ramp can come in one piece or two piece ramp with handles to make it easy to carry around.

Decision?

Whichever you decided to buy/build make sure you understand their advantages and disadvantages.In some cases both of them must be used. For example a wheelchair lift for your home and ramp for your car. If possible ask others who also use wheelchair so you can learn from their experiences.