There was a time when they didnt allow power wheelchairs? When was that?
I am not aware of any time they did not.
My DD has used a power wheelchair since 2000. We have not brought her power wheelchair to WDW, but she has used a manual wheelchair at WDW since she was a toddler in 1987.
From our first trip with the wheelchair in 1987, I saw people in power wheelchairs at WDW.
Maybe we have just been lucky to live in places that are accepting, but I first met someone who used a power wheelchair in 1974 and he had no problems with acceptance or fear. His problems were the same problems we faced with DD's manual wheelchair:
- stairs
- lack of ramps
- narrow doorways
- inaccessible bathrooms
- inaccessible transportation.
From our first trip to WDW, we found everything to be pretty accessible and they have improved each year. The main difficulties we found were difficulty on transferring and some of the bathrooms not being accessible.
WDW has made lots of improvements over the years and now have many attractions with wheelchair accessible ride cars.
Oh, Lord. People squaked themselves sick over it. There are still people on these boards who suggest that they shouldn't be allowed at Disney. You must see it on occasion.
No, I have been on these boards since 1999, searching out wheelchair and ECV threads and I can truthfully say I have not.
There are some individual posters who complain about how fast people go on ECVs (not power wheelchairs) and some people who complain about guests that the don't think are 'disabled' who they see using ECVs.
So obsessed that I took a Segway tour this weekend as I have never rode one. It's an amazing machine and very misunderstood . Many of the claims of not stopping fast, ability to stay still, speed, size etc. much to my surprise were incorrect.
I have also ridden a Segway. I have taken the WDW Epcot Segway tour 3 times and all 3 times someone wiped out enough to fall off - mostly just bumps and skinned knees, but still accidents. This was in World Showcase when it was closed and after an hour of class time spent riding inside.
Besides the 'wipe outs', there were several Segways that got away from the rider, mostly going down hills when they picked up speed too quickly and the rider did not know what to do. That would have been very dangerous if it had been in an area that was open with guests.
There was also one couple who keep taking their hands off the controls to take pictures while they were moving, even though we had all been told that both hands needed to remain on the Segway at all times and that we were only to take pictures when we were off.
NOW, I am not saying that experienced users will have these problems, but if/once Segways are allowed in the parks, I do think that there will be off-site companies that rent them, the same as off-site companies currently rent ECVs.
So that led me to the next step, looking at the specs. Of many power chairs and scooters.
First thing I found out is many of the scooters on the market and in use are not what has been has been refered to as "approved devices". Not that it matters.
I'm curious what you mean by this.
You will not usually find anything about approval in the specs or marketing for the power wheelchairs and ECVs. Some include it as a marketing point, especially the ECVs, but most do not. So, just because it's not in the specs doesn't mean it's not FDA approved.
If they are being sold as a medical device, they all have to go through the FDA approval process, so there is no point in including it.
For some, it is a LONG process; I think it took 3 years for the iBot wheelchair to be approved. Because it had a lot of 'novel' designs, the manufacturer had to prove that it was safe and effective. The FDA approval also comes up with lists of people who should not use the device.
Here is a link to the FDA summary page about the final approval for the iBot.
You will find information about the approval process for each power wheelchair or ECV by
doing a search here.
It's not the easiest process, but if you enter the name of one of the 'big players' in power wheelchairs or ECVs in the APPLICANT NAME, you will get a list of their products and can follow the link to find out when it was submitted for approval and when the final approval came.
The biggest players for power wheelchairs and ECVs in the US are Pride and Invacare. Sunrise Medical (also listed as Quickie) and Permobile are other power wheelchair companies.
Searching for Pride, brings up a list of their products;
this is a link to the approval for one of their ECVs, the Victory XL (it was an update of an earlier model, and was approved quickly).
So, ECVs also have to meet a large number of safety guidelines to be approved, including how quickly they stop, how well they deal with electrical interference, how stable they are when used according to directions.
Now when looking at powerchairs it's a totally different story. They all have been designed for persons with disabilities . What I did find striking is the variety available . Some are what you would expect. Others where another story.
ECVs and power wheelchairs are aimed at and designed for different markets. People who use ECVs can generally walk, at least short distances, don't need any special seating modifications and have the ability to get on and off without much difficulty, plus have the strength and dexterity to operate the controls.
The original FDA approval for ECVs would list the people who they are not approved for (since ECVs have been around for a long time, the majority of them just say "essentially equivalent" on the approval, meaning they are not different than other devices in that class of devices).
Those who need power wheelchairs generally have more complex disabilities and more complex needs than those who use ECVs. Some users are similar to ECV users, but don't have the ability to use the ECV control and need a joystick. Those people often get the less expensive, less complex power wheelchairs (like the Hoverounds you see on TV commercials).
Some users have MUCH more complex needs in terms of their ability to control the wheelchair, positioning needs, seating. The more complex the needs, the more complex the wheelchair. My DD's power wheelchair could be controlled with a simple joystick, a specialized 'goalpost' joystick, or even by a mouth switch or head touch switch if that was what she needed.
All of these things are subject to FDA approval for how they operates, safety, etc.
I found many chairs that can move as fast as a Segway and are much heavier . Bounder makes a chair that is like a truck. Very neat............Are chairs like the Bounder and others put under speed restritions, I would think not. I would imagine that if a person was acting in a dangerious manner they would be asked to leave
The Bounder gets brought up a lot in defense of Segway's speed, but it is kind of a red herring. Yes, it exists, but the company is a very small player in a fairly small field.
The majority of power wheelchairs sold are in the slower speed group, not the fastest. And, even the fastest ones may not be SET to go that fast. My DD's has a top speed of 7.5 miles per hour, but we needed some of the other items (in her case, a feature called TruTrack) that came bundled with the speed. In order to get that, we had to provide documentation about exactly why she needed these features.
Power wheelchairs like my DD's have something called the controller, which is actually a computer that has certain parameters set, like how fast the wheelchair accelerates when the joystick is activated - I think hers has 8 different parameters in each program and she has 4 separate programs. For example, if we are somewhere that is busy and requires a slow speed, we have program 1, which is set with a top speed of 60% of full (so 4.5 mph). She can control the speed by how far she pushes the joystick away from center position. In addition to that, there is a reostat knob that can be set to full speed for that program (so 4.5 mph) all the way down to hardly moving. That reostat works on all the programs.
Her fastest program is set with a maximum speed of 85% of full (so 6.375 mph).
From what we have been told by medical equipment people, this is fairly typical for how the settings are done, so just knowing a chair is CAPABLE of going that fast doesn't mean it CAN go that fast.
Businesses DO have the ability to tell someone to slow down or even to leave if they continue to operate in an unsafe manner.
Then came the hard part. Looking for saftey studies.
The hardest part of safety studies is that none have been done in anywhere equivalent to WDW.
Even the different WDW parks are very different from each other. MK is a very different place than EPCOT, in terms of the number of people, age/size of people and how congested it gets.
What I can't find is a definitive study that's says the machine is and of itself a danger. So what we end up with is behavior.
There is one other piece besides behavior.
The Segway was not designed for people with disabilities; it was designed for able bodied people who can get on and off without assistance and can operate the controls with both hands. The website and manuals do mention many times that a helmet should be worn at all times when the Segway is being operated. You will not find an ECV or power wheelchair manual that gives that advice. If my DD's power wheelchair loses power, it will just stop, it won't dump her off.
If a Segway loses power, the user has 10 seconds to either come to a safe stop or step off. If they don't the Segway will fall over and the rider will fall off. That is a problem with something with only 2 wheels.
The Segway "Getting Started" Manual does state:
"The Segway PT has not been designed, tested or approved as a medical device. You must be able to step on and off the Segway PT unassisted, which requires physical abilities similar to ascending and descending stairs without assistance, and without holding the handrail."
Some people have done 'work-arounds' like outfitting the Segway with things like seats. But, some of those modifications bypass safety devices - like the ones designed to not let the machine move if someone is not standing on the platform.
It would be nice if the company could come up with a version of the Segway that is designed for people with disabilities, without compromising safety - but it would probably not be the same 2 wheeled device it is now.
Having ridden a Segway, I can understand why someone with a disability would want to ride something like that. I can also see where it would be safe in
some pedestrian environments (like shopping malls, or even zoos that I have been at, where people are generally moving in the same direction and it is not as congested as WDW).
But, I am not sure that a place like WDW is a good place, with a lot of congestion and many children and people who are paying more attention to their surroundings than to who and what is around them.
)..
