An adapted car makes travelling easier and more independent

Travelling with a wheelchair is always a mixed delight. If you are travelling with a manual wheelchair, you can basically get around everywhere, at least with the help of personal assistants. Travelling with an electric wheelchair is a bit more difficult and requires more planning. Travelling by plane or car in a wheelchair comes with various opportunities and difficulties.

I have travelled a lot with a manual wheelchair together with my assistants. The difficulties have mostly been related to stairs, getting the wheelchair onto the airplane and keeping it intact after being packed incorrectly in the luggage compartment. In a few cases, the wheelchair has been lost completely. This is of course unacceptable but the harsh reality.

Those who dare to travel with their electric wheelchair unfortunately risk having their wheelchair completely destroyed during the journey and it is even more difficult to get help with repairs if flying abroad. Whatever wheelchair you are travelling with, you need to be vigilant about your wheelchair. It is also important to have some spare parts and tools with you.

Travelling in a wheelchair by bus, train or boat is a different story. How it works and how accessible it is varies a lot between transportation companies.

Travelling with a wheelchair by ferry service or wheelchair taxi works and is quite simple. Travelling by local bus, tram and metro is a hit or miss. When I choose to travel by metro, in Stockholm, Sweden, I always bring a small folding ramp to avoid getting stuck with my wheelchair wheels in the gap between the metro carriage and the platform.

The bottom line of travelling between different modes of transport for a wheelchair user is that travelling by car still offers the most freedom.

Manual or electric wheelchair

A manual wheelchair is easy to pack and fold in an ordinary car. Depending on your own ability or with the help of others, it may even be possible to outsmart some stairs and escalators.

Nowadays, I mostly use my electric wheelchair, which is large, heavy and rather unwieldy. It definitely doesn’t fit in a regular car – I have a van to fit me sitting in the wheelchair. The adaptation itself is relatively simple, since I do not drive the car myself.

The floor and carpets have been completely removed and replaced by a hard floor to withstand the weight and wear of the wheelchair. At the back there is a long folding ramp and in the floor I can lock the wheelchair, preventing it from moving around. To accommodate the wheelchair, I have had to remove two passenger seats. This can of course be restored the day I no longer need the car. If I had wanted to drive the car myself, it would have required more extensive adaptation.

In Sweden, the government may pay for certain adaptations, provided you understand the complicated rules and have a bit of luck with the approval.

The freedom of a wheelchair and car makes travelling much easier and therefore my everyday life more independent (even if, as in my example, you need assistants to drive the car). The car and the electric wheelchair make life physically more accessible!

Stefan Pelc, Web Author, Funka Foundation