Measuring your wheelchair for a car
If you are buying or hiring a wheelchair accessible vehicle it’s important to know if the wheelchair will fit and how much room the wheelchair passenger will have.
WAV’s come in lots of different shapes and sizes, as do wheelchairs and their users. While most standard wheelchairs will fit in most vehicles it’s worth double checking the amount of room the wheelchair user will have available.
To do this we suggest measuring your wheelchair with the wheelchair user sat in place.
[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkuqXhQR9ew” title=”How to measure a wheelchair” description=”A simple guide on how to measure your wheelchair to check if it will fit into a vehicle.” upload_date=”2022-05-18″ thumbnail=”https://i3.ytimg.com/vi/HkuqXhQR9ew/maxresdefault.jpg” /]
Measuring the wheelchair and user is easy, all you need is a tape measure and a pen/paper to record the results.
See below for measurements you need to take.
Measure the WIDTH of the wheelchair
The width is one of the most important measurements.
The width of the wheelchair dictates:
- Will the wheelchair fit up the ramp?
- Will the wheelchair fit between any rear seats
- How much room will the wheelchair passenger have in the rear
To measure the width, using a your tape measure – measure between the outside edge of both wheels.
The wheels are normally the widest part (and this is the measurement reqired for accessing the ramp – however if your wheelchair has any wider points. You can measure these too to check it will fit between the rear seats.
Measure the LENGTH of the wheelchair
The length measurement will help visualise how well the wheelchair will fit in the rear (or front)
The length of the wheelchair dictates:
- Where will the wheelchair be located in the rear
- Will there be enough space for any luggage or shooping with a wheelchair onboard.
- Will the wheelchair fit with the ramp up – some longer wheelchairs may be unsuitable for smaller vehicles
To measure the length, using a your tape measure – measure from the most forward point (usually the wheelchair users toe) right to the most rear point (usually the back of the wheel – but it could be the handles)
Measure the HEIGHT of the wheelchair and user
The height measurement will allow you to see if there is enough room for the wheelchair passenger to fit. Some taller people may not have enough headroom in the rear.
The height of the wheelchair dictates:
- How much headroom the wheelchair passenger will have
- Will the wheelchair passenger be able to fit through the entry door
To measure the height, use your tape measure to measure from the ground right to the top of the wheelchair users head. To get an accurate measurement try putting a book on their head to give you an easier flat surface to measure to.
Finding a wheelchair accessible vehicle that fits your wheelchair
Now you have your wheelchair and user measurements finding a wheelchair accessible user will be the next step.
At WavsGB we make this even easier by allowing you to enter your measurements and we’ll display suitable vehicles for you.
Make sure you have your measurements ready (in m, cm or mm) click below, once on the page use the sliders to set your measurements and suitble WAVs will be displayed.
Enter your wheelchair measurements
