Those in wheelchairs have always faced a particularly bizarre state of affairs, whilst there was a raft of equipment to help them at home and give them complete mobility there but nothing to help them move out easily into the wider world. Fortunately, in recent years car manufacturers and other private companies have made vast improvements in the accessibility of cars for those in wheelchairs ? in particular lifts to help drivers in and out of the vehicles. And in fact there are now two very different solutions; one the one hand there are inside lifts and on the other, outside lifts. We're going to consider both in this article.

First, lets look at inside wheelchair lifts. The main advantage of this solution is that they don't add any length or width onto the car and therefore help to maintain its overall look and aesthetic. More importantly, it means that the handling of the vehicle is only effected by any additional weight from the lift and not by a change in design. There are other benefits too, including the fact that because the lift is inside, it stays dry throughout and also that the larger inside lifts allow the wheelchair users to stay in their chair all the way until they're inside the vehicle. That's why they tend to be used so extensively in private hire taxis and other public vehicles. However, whilst not adding anything onto the external dimensions of the vehicle, internal lifts do obviously take up space inside the car and require extensive and often expensive changes to the vehicle. Therefore, despite the aesthetic and potential handling benefits, there are obvious negatives in the price and internal changes to the car, including reduced numbers of passengers the car may hold

The alternative is obviously outside wheelchairs. Compared with inside lifts, outside lifts require far less modification of the vehicle, leaving all of your seats and the inside of your car in tact. On top of that installation can be a lot cheaper than their internal counterparts and this can be a crucial factor for those deciding whether to go internal or external. However, as with anything there are disadvantages too, most obviously by mounting the lift on the outside of the vehicle the size of the vehicle is changed which can make it difficult to park in tight spots and also harder to drive.

With both therefore there are obvious advantages and disadvantages but the priority of these vary with the type of car. For example in an SUV there is obviously the space for an internal lift. Similarly in a smaller car the addition of a extra length won't make the car that much harder to park. So, our advice? Think about the car you want to buy first and then how to accommodate the disabled into it afterwards.