Wheelchair bus loading

[Tinkbell]

My grandma is bringing her own wheelchair from home. We will be relying on bus transportation. What is the process they use for loading on the bus? If she uses the lift, does the driver come out to assist?

If she is able to walk up the few steps of the bus, should I just fold up her chair and take it on the bus like a stroller? My mother would be able to help me with the chair.

Are the drivers generally helpful to those in wheelchairs?

Thanks!

 

[Talking Hands]

Your grandma can use the lift or it can be folded and loaded onto the bus via the lift and she can sit in a regular seat. The bus driver will operate the lift and will tie the wheelchair down if your grandma prefers to remain in it. Please remember that if she remains in it for safety reasons she should use the seat belt as well. Many guests prefer not to but it really is not safe.

 

[daughtersrus]

My youngest daughter uses a custom wheelchair. We stayed at FW and the only problem that we had was that not all of the buses had wheelchair lifts. I think that has changed now. The bus driver does all of the work. He/she comes out and lowers the lift. He/she will also secure the chair to the bus. He/she will then let the rest of the part on to the bus before the other passengers. This way, they're sure that the entire party gets on. This causes a problem with other passenger but only a few times. We weren't in the front of the line but the bus always lets wheelchairs and their party on first. A few people made anger comments since there wasn't enough room and they had to wait for the next bus. All in all, it was pretty easy. We're going to FW again in July. Hopefully, there won't be any problems. We weren't able to use the boat because the H2O level was too low. Sorry to ramble. Hope that this helped! Diane

 

[SueM in MN]

We were told a few years ago that over 95% of the buses did have lifts and WDW has added some buses with ramps since then.
If you are renting a wheelchair or ecv, chances are that the bus driver will know where the safe points are to attach the wheelchair tiedowns. Safe points are parts that are the frame of the wheelchair, not parts like swing away footrests that might come unattached in a crash.
We marked our DD's custom manual wheelchair with bright pink tape to show where the safe points were. A lot of bus drivers thanked us for doing that since they could easily find the correct spots. A few drivers didn't realize that the footrests sometimes are a separate piece that oomes off.