Consumers: Individuals or the family of individuals who use wheelchairs
Sections on this page
Background
- The goal of transportation standards and safety practices is to provide an equivalent level of passenger safety for those who ride seated in a wheelchairs as is provided for those who sit in standard passenger seats and use standard safety belts.
- Read the press release issued when the standard was accepted in June 2000. The press release provides and overview and describes the standard. Standards are technical documents used by engineers and manufacturers to precisely measure the features of a product or a system.
- Seeing is believing! Take a look at the magnitude of the forces applied to a wheelchair and its occupant in crash test videos
- Read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on WC19 on this website. They will help to answer many practical questions.
- Best Practices for Using a Wheelchair as a Seat in a Motor Vehicle
The Ride Safe Brochure
- Check this out!! A new and updated Ride Safe Brochure! You will find it on Travelsafer.org, a website focused on ensuring passenger safety when seated in a wheelchair.
- Take a look at the Educational Tool Box for information about how to give a Power Point presentation to others. This presentation with presenters notes is based on the Ride Safe brochure.
- The Ride Safe Brochure can be downloaded in PDF format or you can order it from the Educational Tool Box page.
- Printed copies of this brochure can also be requested from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute by telephone at 734-764-2171 or by e-mail: umtridocs@umich.edu
- Guidelines for Safely Transporting Wheelchair Users - an article written by Mary-Ann Snell OT(C) reprinted with permission from the American Occupational Therapy Association. The article originally appeared in OT Practice June 1999, one year prior to the approval of the WC19 standard.
Standards
- Get an overview of wheelchair transportation safety standards on this website.
- How standards help consumers - a resource page on the ANSI website
- Your voice matters - Why consumers need to participate in standards-making and how to get involved. Download this ANSI website PDF brochure that describes how consumers can participate.
- The WC19 standard is available for purchase for $100.00 from RESNA's website.
- WC19 harmonizes in large part with the ISO standard (International Standards Organization), ISO 7176-19 on transit safe wheelchairs. You can learn more about the ISO-WG6 taskgroup which developed the international standard for wheelchair transportation safety on the Standards section of this website. To the extent possible American and International standards are identical, however, in this instance there are some differences.
- The ISO 7176-19 standard can be purchased in the ISO store at: http://www.iso.org/
Products
An up-to-date list of all crash-tested Wheelchair & Seating Products along with links to the manufacturers' homepage.
Wheelchairs
- Accufast
- Colours in Motion
- Convaid
- Freedom Designs
- Gunnell
- Invacare
- Kids Up, Inc.
- Mullholland
- OttoBock
- Patron
- Pride Jazzy
- Product Design Group - PDG
- Permobil - only with Permolock docking system
- Sammons Preston
- SnugSeat
- Sunrise Quickie
- TiLite
Seating Systems
Wheelchair Securement and Occupant Restraint Systems (WTORS)
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Creative Controls - wheelchair securement
- EZ Lok - wheelchair securement for private vehicles
- Ortho Safe Systems International - wheelchair securement
- Q'Straint - wheelchair securement and occupant restraint
- SureLok- wheelchair securement and occupant restraint
- Note: When communicating with manufacturers who are not listed here, be sure to ask if their products comply with the SAE J2249 Standard for Wheelchair Tiedown and Occupant Restraints (WTORS)
Advocacy and System Change
- Why buy a WC19 compliant wheelchair? (a PDF document)
- Justifying funding for WC19 Wheelchairs and Seating - Need help for your therapist or supplier? Offer them suggested language for use in documentation and letters of justification. Everyone needs to work together to get the safer wheelchairs funded.
"Education Pages" to print out for yourself or others:
- New!! Guidelines for Use of Secondary Postural Support Devices by Wheelchair Users During Travel in Motor Vehicles - learn about best practices for positioning belts, chest harnesses, lateral supports, etc. (450MB PDF)
- Best Practices in Wheelchair Tranportation Safety
- How Safe is your Wheelchair?
- School Transportation Safety Checklist - Trumbull County School District
- Find out if your manufacturer is producing Crash-tested Wheelchairs.
- If NOT, help make things change... Manufacturers need to know that consumers want and need this kind of product.
- Download a letter template in Microsoft Word format or download a letter template in rich text format. Modify it and use it to write a letter to your manufacturer. Tell them you want to be able to select from ANY of their wheelchairs, and know that it will be available with a transit option.
- Coming soon...
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Public bus or transit riders
- Private vehicle users
- School IEP teams
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Other Information Resources
- Project Action - Easter Seals project for accessible community transportation. The site has links to free resources, training and an accessible transportation database.
- Transportation Operators Guide - (66K .pdf document) a resource produced by Easter Seals Project Action.
- Paratransit Fact Sheet - from the Amputee Coalition of America
- Accessible Rural Transportation - at the Association for Rural Independent Living
- Community Transit Association - a resource for accessible transportation for all
- Automotive Safety Issues for Individuals with Disability - a resource at NHTSA.
- Wheelchair Rider Risk in Motor Vehicles (A journal article from the VA Journal of Research & Development)
- Frequently Asked Questions about Wheelchair Transportation Safety.
- External Links to Transportation Resources
Children
- A summary of regulations about transit safety for child passengers
- School Transportation News Online - resources on special needs travelers
- NHTSA: School Bus Safety
- School Transportation Safety Checklist - a document reprinted with permission from Trumbull County School District.
- Transporting Students with Special Healthcare Needs (A journal article from the American Academy of Pediatrics).
- Transporting Children in Wheelchairs (An article from Exceptional Parent Magazine)
In-Depth Accident Investigation
- Have you been seated in a wheelchair in a motor vehicle and been in an accident? We are conducting a research study. We want to learn more about the consequences of vehicle accidents for those who were riding in or driving while seated in a wheelchair at the time of an accident.
- Download and read the project description and recruitment flyer (105 K PDF doc)
- If you would like to participate, contact Larry Schneider at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI)
Have more questions about WC19? Contact us at ruffing@pitt.edu
Last Updated: March 18, 2008
Acknowledgement:
Department of Education, Washington DC
This Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Wheelchair Transportation Safety
is funded by NIDRR grant #H133E060064