If your home or business has points of entry with raised thresholds, a portable wheelchair ramp provides an unobtrusive, easy-to-use way for wheelchair uses to enter and exit your property safely. However, if you want your home or business to be truly welcoming to all wheelchair users, you will need a portable ramp that can be used safely by powered wheelchair users as well as manual wheelchair users
Powered wheelchairs have limited mobility, and many powered wheelchair users do not have an able-bodied carer or companion to help manually push their heavy wheelchairs up steep ramps. With these limitations in mind, you should look for a portable wheelchair ramp with the following properties:
Extended Length
Many powered wheelchairs do not have the power or torque necessary for climbing steep slopes. A portable wheelchair ramp suitable for use with powered wheelchairs must have a relatively shallow gradient.
As a rule of thumb, the ramp you choose should have at least one foot of length for every inch of height it will be used to climb. If your door thresholds are four inches high, you will need a ramp at least four feet long, and so on. As a consequence, portable wheelchair ramps for powered wheelchairs tend to be considerably longer than ramps used exclusively by manual wheelchair users.
Folding Functionality
Because portable wheelchair ramps for powered wheelchairs are longer and larger, finding enough space for storage when they are not in use can be challenging, especially if your home or business premises is relatively small. Folding wheelchair ramps will be easier to use if you have limited storage space, and are also easier to carry to and from your points of entry.
Lightweight
A ramp with extended length also means more weight to carry, and if your building has high door thresholds, you may find it difficult to carry a large ramp several feet in length. Folding ramps will make transportation easier, but you should also ensure that the ramp you choose is relatively lightweight.
Load-Bearing Strength
Powered wheelchairs weigh significantly more than their unpowered counterparts, and the sophisticated powered wheelchairs used by more profoundly disabled individuals can sometimes weigh hundreds of pounds.
If your portable ramp is intended for home use by a single person, you can choose a ramp that will support the combined weight of the wheelchair and its user. However, if you need a ramp for a public-facing business, you will need a ramp that can accommodate all types of powered wheelchairs.
Finding a lightweight, folding wheelchair ramp that can also support a heavy powered wheelchair and its user can be a challenge. You may have to forgo folding ramps since these ramps tend to have lower maximum weight capacities. Portable ramps with aluminum construction can be very useful for commercial ramp users — aluminum has an excellent strength-to-weight ratio and can support a heavy wheelchair without straining you while you carry it.
