Pre-trip planning and I have a few ???

[Jacksmom99]

We are currently "pre-planning" an extended family trip for Christmas 2008. At this point we are looking at an off site rental because we don't want to use all our DVC points for x-mas week. DH's cousin (18) may be joining us and is confined to a wheelchair due to CP. She has limited movement in her arms, can push herself around the house, but obviously WDW would be too much for her. There will be plently of adults around to help push, but I'm thinking that at 18 she will want some level of independence. At home she has a motorized wheelchair, but she lived in the Netherlands so she doesn't travel with it as it's large and heavy. The manual one can easily fit in the back of an SUV with out having to be broken down. OK, so now you have the background, here are a few of my questions.....

1) Does anyone know of any vacation house rentals that are HA? (We would need one to sleep 14.) We're pretty good about getting her in and out of our non HA houses when she visits, but bathing is always an issue. She has to go the the relative's house with the huge walk-in shower with the built-in bench.

2) Can you rent motorized wheelchairs? If so, do you need to rent a special van? A scooter won't work, she doesn't have great upper trunk strength.

3) Is there anything I'm not thinking of? The healthcare system in the Netherlands is great. They provide $$ for personal care assistants and my husband's aunt is always able to hire one of Liann's regular assistants to travel with her. Someone will be available for the heavy lifting, but are there things that would make her life easier that I don't know about?

TIA,
Kim

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I can answer question 2.

A few of the companies listed in the "disABILITIES FAQ" will rent power chairs. This has to be pre-arranged and you have to provide them with the user's current chair model information and all of the settings involved. Normally this information can be obtained from the company which sold and maintains the user's chair.

There are some site, I don't have the information immediately available, that will rent lift or ramp equipped vans. The price runs about $100 per day.

As far as a HA rental, I would suggest that any rental companies you contact, if they state that they have an accessible house available, that you ask them to provide specific photosa such as in teh bathrrom(s) and the entrance as well as a few other general photos including doorways. Having a large ruler or a person in the photos will help in giving true dimensional information.

 

[Andrew Bichard]

I know that handicap adapted villas exist, because there is one owner who advertises every month in a 'Special Needs' magazine that I supscribe to here in the UK. Maybe you have access to similar magazines too.

You should also note that some of the suppliers of rental wheelchairs and ECVs also rent out other medical equipment such as hoists, if that is something you need.

Andrew

 

[luvmyeor]

This site has several links that may help you: http://www.medicaltravel.org/Links/travel_link_directory.htm

You can also try searching "Orlando, Fl vacation homes handicapped accessible" and you will get lots of results. I don't know if you will find one house that is accessible for 14 people--most of the ones I found were for 10 or less. You may be able to rent two units beside each other if you can't find one large enough.

 

[SueM in MN]

With a power wheelchair, you will need a wheelchair accessible van to transport it. There is a list of places to rent wheelchair accessible vans in the disABILITIES FAQs thread (located near the top of this board). The list is in post #2. With 14 people, you would need more than one vehicle since a wheelchair van might only hold a total of 6 (5 plus the wheelchair) or less.
We have not used any of the companies in Orlando, but did use Wheelchair Getaways in the Twin Cities area when someone ran into our van and it was out of service for a few days. They were fine.

You might be better off staying on site because you would be able to use WDW transportation to get from place to place. You'd have to check the cost of the off site place + transportation (wheelchair vans are very expensive to rent) + parking at the parks compared to a WDW resort (you would not need to rent a van and parking would be free for resort guests).

We had looked into renting a power wheelchair from Care or Walker on one of our trips since we didn't want to travel with DD's power wheelchair. They will rent to experienced power wheelchair users, but you do have to know the settings, size, etc to tell them. In our DD's case, we could not rent because the size of her wheelchair (seat 14 inches wide by 18 inches long) is an unusual size. If she had a more common size and didn't need any special things besides a seatbelt, we could have rented one for her.

 

[Jacksmom99]

Thanks for the replies! I agree with SueM, that the more we look at transportation costs and equipment, that onsite may be a better option. I know that we could get HA accommodations easily and the bus transportation would be great when Liann wants to get out with her friend. The rest of the time, we can easily get her into a minivan if we need to with her regular chair.

One more question, what about handicapped parking with a rental? Liann is not from the US, so she does not have a decal to put in the rental car. There must be a way to address this that I'm not aware of.

Thanks,
Kim

 

[Andrew Bichard]

One more question, what about handicapped parking with a rental? Liann is not from the US, so she does not have a decal to put in the rental car. There must be a way to address this that I'm not aware of.

Thanks,
Kim

If Liann is from the Netherlands she probably has a similar 'blue badge' to mine. (I am from the UK and I believe all countries in the EU have the same or similar disabled badges).

A couple of years back, the rule was that UK (and I assume EU) badge holders could obtain a temporary handicap hang tag from the traffic office in Orlando. I believe from messages on this board, that it is no longer necessary to do this as UK (and NL?) badges are now recognised.

Also, if you rent a handicap van, it may come equipped with a valid hang tag. (I rented a handicap van from Rainbow Wheels several years ago and a Florida diasabled tag was hanging from the mirror when it was delivered to me).

Andrew