Category Archives: information

Where To Begin: Accessibility Options

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Vehicles can be adapted in many different ways, but the options are almost always dependent on how the wheelchair user plans to use it on a day-to-day basis. A few questions to consider when initially thinking about what you need are:

  • What’s the ideal location for the wheelchair user to sit in the vehicle?
  • Will the wheelchair user be driving?
  • Does the wheelchair user want to transfer out of their seat?
  • Is the wheelchair positioned at an extended height or width?

After those questions are answered, you can begin to look into the various accessibility conversions available to fit your vehicle needs. A few of the most common features include hand controls, transfer seats and ramp or lift style.

Six-Month Maintenance on Accessible Vehicles

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Every vehicle needs maintenance on a periodic basis, and a wheelchair-accessible vehicle is no exception. Do you take your van to a regular mechanic occasionally for oil changes and tune-ups and then a mobility dealer for the adaptive equipment check-up every six months?

Going to two different places when you don’t need to is poor time management. For smooth operation of your time, vehicle and adaptive equipment, skip the mechanic and take it to a us – we can do both in just one trip.

We have the training and experience needed to maintain and repair complicated, high-tech systems and controls installed in modern wheelchair accessible vans and the expertise in dozens of features that a regular mechanic is not trained to repair.

Miracle Flights for Kids

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Founded in 1985, Miracle Flights for Kids® is a national, 501(c)(3), nonprofit organization dedicated to helping low income very sick children overcome financial obstacles that prevent them from accessing proper medical care and second opinions.

Miracle Flights for Kids® helps fly children who are struggling with serious cancers and other debilitating diseases to specialized medical treatment centers across the U.S. Any child needing medical treatment or seeking out a second opinion not available in their own hometown is eligible to apply for a miracle flight.

Given the growing costs of health care today and how often illnesses can lead to monetary troubles, the Miracle Flights for Kids® program serves those families who are unable to manage the financial burden of getting their children to life-saving treatments far from home. That is why miracle flights are so important to all of America’s children. To date, Miracle Flights has coordinated more than 90,000 free flights, flying over 49 million miles.

Miracle Flights for Kids® exists to help families get the care their child so desperately needs, at no cost to them, as many times as required.

False Assumptions About DisAbilities and Employment

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More than 80% of Americans with disAbilities are unemployed.  Most of these people would very much prefer to be employed.  Sometimes the barriers to employment are related to the disAbility itself, and sometimes the barriers are created by co-workers and employers in the form of false assumptions.

It’s not fair.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against Americans who have disAbilities. The ADA requires employers with 15 employees or more to make “reasonable accommodation” to enable a person with a disAbility to perform at his or her job.  The accommodations level the play field so that a person with a disAbility can make contributions in the workplace.  In other words, accommodations make the workplace more fair, not less fair.

Employees with disAbilities are too expensive.
More than half of all workplace accommodations or adjustments cost nothing to the employer.  These include accommodations such as permitting sitting instead of standing, or standing instead of sitting.  For the accommodations that do require an expenditure, there is typically a one-time cost of about $500 (such as a wheelchair-accessible desk), which quickly pays for itself in the form of increased productivity, decreased insurance and training costs and longer tenure of the employee.

There’s no proof that this person can do the job.
In most cases, the only way to prove this is to go ahead and do the job.  If proof of ability were to be required of every applicant, no one would ever be able to get his or her first job and no one would ever be promoted to higher levels of responsibility.  This assumption is a good example of blatant discrimination.

All new employees should be healthy.
Employers are prohibited from asking employees about medical conditions either before or after being hired, but they are allowed to ask if an applicant is capable of performing the job requirements.  Medical screenings are permitted as long as all employees go through the same screening for job-related requirements.  The truth is that many new employees have some type of pre-existing medical condition, such as a thyroid disease, a pregnancy or a history of depression.  The same consideration must be given to employees with disAbilities, according to the ADA.  Every applicant deserves to be considered on the basis of past qualifications and present job requirements.