Wheelchair Lifts
My younger brother, Stephen, was born with cerebral palsy. For those of you who don’t know, cerebral palsy is a disorder that limits the movement of those who have it. People with CP often have a hard time talking and communicating. I don’t understand a lot about it, but I know it means that Stephen is going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, even though he’s not paralyzed. He can move around and even crawls pretty well, but for people with cerebral palsy walking is difficult, even painful. Last year Stephen got a motorized wheelchair. He learned to operate it in no time at all. But my mom had a problem with it. Whenever she took it anywhere, she found it difficult to get it in and out of her minivan. Motorized wheelchairs are heavy and unwieldy, she said. Not that I know what unwieldy means. That’s when dad looked into wheelchairs lifts.
Wheelchair lifts do exactly what you might expect—they help you lift a heavy or unwieldy wheelchair into the back of your car, truck, or van. Wheelchair lifts come in two types: external lifts and internal lifts. The external lifts attach right onto the hitch of your vehicle in the back, while the internal ones are secured in the trunk and pull your chair inside in no time at all. Since Stephen’s wheelchair is a little heavier than most, my parents looked at models of external wheelchair lifts.
The model they ended up choosing can lift up to 350 pounds and is really easy to use. Stephen just drives his chair onto the ramp and it’s ready to be loaded. After the durable, metal ramp is locked into place, it does all the work by itself. They don’t even need a power source! When these wheelchair lifts are finished doing their job, they can even be folded up for easy storage. Mom loves the freedom wheelchair lifts have given our family. Now she can take Stephen’s wheelchair just about anywhere without having to worry about getting it in and out of her minivan.
