Kids and Wheelchair Ramps
You're a wheeling dealing wheelie-popping kid in your kid power wheelchair who rules the playground！you think, ramps are no problem. After all, you've ridden up the concrete ones on sidewalks and at the entrances to buildings. You're safe and careful. You may be careful, but you may not be safe.
While wheel chair ramps can hold sports wheelchairs and power wheelchairs as well as three-wheel scooters, you need to be safe. Your dad may have let you pop a wheelie up the front ramp at your house just to test the ramp he made himself but you need to be a little less of a daredevil. Hospitals cramp your style. Some hints:
? If the rail is broken or wobbly, tell an adult.
? Check to see that you can get off the ramp and transition onto the slide or swings
? Watch for color indicators that mark an increase or decrease in slope.
? Raised pits (hurray, sand and dirt), should have a ramp so you can zoom up there and get your face in the dirt.
? Watch for ramps that are wet, or where your wheelchair skids.
Now that you're safe！at least as far as the grownups are concerned！you can go back to being the queen of the playground.
Pathway Access Ramps and Sports Wheelchairs
Your Colours Impact Sports Chair is ready for full-court action in the gym. You and your teammates don't have a wheelchair sports arena so you're making do this once with the rec. center. Unfortunately, the building's not up to code. They didn't get many wheelchair players...until you. But while they're building a modular ramp, they suggest a temporary wheelchair ramp called the Pathway Ramp to install at the entrance.
The Pathway wheel chair ramp looks like it'll collapse...kind of like the other team's defensive line. Your Impact chair is lean and mean, but also large and in charge. The frame is 20 pounds, you weigh 250. Can pathway wheel chair ramps survive the impact? Actually, yes. Better than the other team's defense. Pathway wheelchair ramps can withstand up to 850 pounds, or three players at once rolling into the gym.
With a Little Help From Your Ramp
Shockingly enough, your boss has spent the money to upgrade your office so that is is wheelchair-accessible. Of course, there goes the raise you were hoping for, but still, you've just received a "raise" of your own as you move through the doorways without difficulty. However, the front threshold is another matter. Your boss is always forgetting to scan for viruses or to pick up dry cleaning, but you're determined he won't forget accessibility for long. Managers and higher-ups like people who show initiative. Present your boss with this bold idea: EZ-Edge threshhold wheelchair ramps. Tell him they meet his litmus test:
? They're EZ to install.
? They look good, and so does he.
? They're low-cost.
You can even use EZ-Edge inside at the thresholds to:
? Loading bays
? Boss's office
? Workshops
? IT departments (those guys are so busy saving the world they forget minor details)
Did we say you weren't going to get a raise? Turns out the boss likes your ingenuity. Oh, and you just earned a promotion. Threshold wheel chair ramps can even give your career a boost. Just remember to take all the people who helped you with the wheelchair ramps with you when you get that corner office.
Pathway or Modular Ramp?
Decisions, decisions...it seems kids don't make many. Adults make them all. But you're in your power or manual wheelchair, and the adults are listening to you, at home and at school.
School's supposed to be accessible and the front entrance is. The side doors, however, like the auditorium doors, don't have wheel chair ramps. The last time someone raised such a fuss was when the cafeteria served bad meatloaf. At home, too, there isn't a wheelchair ramp in the backyard！your mom has those high steps leading to the deck. You can't make too many demands at home, but your school has to accommodate you.
The question is, however, do you select a modular wheelchair ramp or a pathway ramp? Think for a minute because building and using wheelchair ramps is something not to be taken lightly. A pathway ramp is more for temporary use at home and in school. You'll be in school for what feels like the next hundred years, and you aren't the only kid in a wheelchair.
Modular wheelchair ramps, with their switchback configurations, can get you onto the deck at home and into the auditorium at school. You know the adults want to do the right thing. Tell them you'll do extra homework. Appeal to their desire not to deprive you of studying and tests. Now that the new wheelchair ramp helped you into school, you have another pressing dilemma: To eat or not to eat the meatloaf?
Modular Ramps in Motion
You've become the Americans with Disabilities Act expert but your boss can quote the provisions even better. When your boss says he needs to move the modular wheelchair ramp to the back because of construction in the front office, you panic. Granted, as long as the building is wheelchair-accessible, you're in compliance. But you're nervous！can you move that big bulky ramp with a switchback?
Your boss knows what's good for the business. A modular wheelchair ramp can be moved from the front entrance to the back entrance for temporary construction！just make sure that every door is barrier-free. Although that back entrance had a wheelchair ramp, it's nothing compared to this modular beauty, which can deliver you right to the back door you have difficulty reaching.
Once construction is through, you request another wheel chair ramp for the front door. Oh wait, your boss has already done it. You realize that you're a little fuzzy on the ADA, so you ask your boss to refresh your memory. Way to ramp up your rapport with the boss and your career!
Wheel Chair Ramp Length
You're measuring the doorways, the stairs, and your car. Your friends say you should have your own show on HGTV: "Designing with Accessibility." You're already picking out what you'll wear. At least they appreciate how complex the art of building and using wheelchair ramps can be. But, before you sign a contract, don't forget to measure your wheelchair ramp, especially if you need help propelling yourself up the ramp.
Caregivers can be annoying, exasperating, loving, fun, and sometimes the only thing you can count on. Plus, yours is demanding a cut of the revenue from your show. But they're necessary, and they can actually shorten the length of your wheelchair ramps. The ADA recommends one foot of wheel chair ramp length per one inch of vertical rise, but you can shorten that by a factor of .5 if your caregiver is pushing and .33 if you have a power chair or scooter. Say you need 25 feet. Shorten that to 12.5 feet with your caregiver. If you can power yourself up the ramp with an electric power wheelchair, shorten that to 8.25 feet. Independence does indeed have its rewards. And, remember the 1 to 12 ratio: one foot of rise per 12 feet, which means that 8.25-foot ramp will be just shy of a foot high.
As would-be host of your own show, you know that the ADA specs are just a place to start. After all, you know your way around your home better than anyone. And you've already planned your daytime Emmy acceptance speech. What to wear, Isaac Mizrahi or Badgley Mischka? And what is your caregiver going to wear?
Building Bridges Yourself
You've built a cupola for the upstairs. You made a dollhouse for your daughter. You built a birdhouse. You set a boat afloat. Surely you can construct a custom wheel chair ramp so you or your loved one can ride up to the front or back entrance or both?
Building and using wheelchair ramps can¨t always be a piece of cake. Here are some tips before you head to Home Depot for this new weekend plan, Project Wheelchair Ramp:
? Use the same wood as the wood in your house. If it's sturdy enough for your walls, it will support a wheelchair or scooter.
? Aluminum or steel wheelchair ramps are durable. Buy sheets of metal that you can weld together if necessary.
? Remember, steeper ramps are more dangerous. If the distance is 24 inches, incline the ramp 2 inches (one unit of height to twelve units of distance).
? Check the board length and the overall ramp width (36 to 48 inches is recommended) to make sure they're up to code.
? Have your child pop a wheelie up the ramp. If it holds, it's probably solid enough for a wheelchair.
Scooters, Power Chairs and Ramps
Your three-wheel scooter can get around. Cue '60s music: "I get around, get around, I get around." Your scooter can tear up the pavement. Luckily, you don't use it all the time！you're sitting in your desk at college or at work before people finish eating your dust.
But one day you hit a snag: The aluminum wheelchair ramp over the front steps doesn't look like it can hold your scooter. Suddenly you're singing Del Shannon's "Runaway."
Not to worry. If the wheelchair ramp is a PVI solid aluminum wheel chair ramp, you know that according to the ADA, it's got to be at least 36-48 inches wide and accommodate your scooter. Load capacities for wheel chair ramps are usually 600 to 800 pounds, a snap if you have the Easy Light Scooter, weighing in at 53 pounds (heaviest part is 20), or the Mini Moxie, with its heaviest part weighing 45 pounds. Oh...and PVI aluminum wheelchair ramps work for power wheelchairs too (also racing bikes).
Even if your scooter is a monster-truck Peter Fonda-type "Easy Rider," you'll have no problem rolling up and down aluminum PVI wheelchair ramps. Cue "Born To Be Wild"! Buiding and using wheelchair ramps don't have to be difficult tasks.
Concrete Suggestions for Ramps
You've created your own wheel chair ramp！you DIY demon, you. Now everyone's coming to you for advice about everything from painting the deck to installing a hot tub. Only if you can be the first to try the hot tub! While you're waiting for your first soak, however, the wheel chair ramps look like they're missing something. The answer is simple: Posts. How do you create your own? Put these tips on a Post-It Note:
? HGTV's Fix It Up! hosts Pat Simpson and Jodi Marks suggest using concrete piers that allow you to put posts on the ground without digging and pouring concrete. Mucking about with a shovel interferes with your hot tub time.
? Check your state, local, and federal building codes. You don't want your soak in the hot tub to be rudely interrupted by a local building inspector or health official.
? Make sure the boards are 2x6 inches or 2x8 inches and that the whole ramp is 36 to 48 inches wide to safely support your chair and you.
? Add a toe rail along the handrail to keep your wheelchair from rolling off the ramp.
Now that you've created the perfect ramp, you can enjoy a cold drink and a well-deserved soak...in your new hot tub. Your neighbors inspired you.