Wheelchair Lift Doors

On this page: Van Lift Doors, Bus Lift Doors

The positioning of the wheelchair lift doors on your wheelchair accessible bus or wheelchair van is important in determining how your staff and clients will access your vehicle. In addition, it will also impact how they load and unload passengers from the vehicle. The choices vary by whether you are using a wheelchair van versus a wheelchair accessible bus because of the way the vehicles are constructed.

Van Lift Doors

Wheelchair van lift doors are usually “raised” doors. The doors must be raised in order to accommodate the height of the wheelchair lift, which is almost always higher than the original door. To accomplish this, the door “frame” is cut and a kit is affixed to it that increases the entry height while also reinforcing the structural integrity of the wheelchair van.

On the actual doors, the upper portion of the original entry doors are also affixed with a modification kit that extends their upper portion so that they can now cover the increased opening height. Door latches and weather seals are also moved, added or modified so that the door can open and close and be leak resistant.

The choice of which doors will serve as the wheelchair lift doors is a critical consideration when designing your wheelchair van floor plan. Many people prefer to use the rear doors of the wheelchair van because it allows the side doors to be used as an entry way for ambulatory passengers. Others, however, prefer the side doors for wheelchair lifts because they enable wheelchairs to be let out of the vehicle on to a sidewalk as opposed to onto the street. The number of wheelchair users and ambulatory passengers you transport will greatly influence your decision.

VCI Mobility is very experienced in creating wheelchair van lift doors, having produced thousands of them over the years. Our proprietary process enables us to reliably produce these doors in a manner which ensures years of trouble-free, aesthetically pleasing service.

Bus Lift Doors

In a wheelchair accessible bus, the lift doors are nearly always on the side of the bus. The choice to make is whether you have them toward the rear of the vehicle, or right next to the ambulatory entrance at the front. The most common choice is to have the doors at the rear of the passenger side of the vehicle.

When the lift door is at the rear of the vehicle, it allows the entry of ambulatory passengers and wheelchair users to be completely separate so that they do not interfere with each other. As wheelchair positions are usually also in the rear of the vehicle, ambulatory passengers do not have to walk through wheelchair securement areas to get to seats, thus completely eliminating the possibility that someone would trip over the wheelchair tie downs or tie down straps as they moved toward their seat.

Organizations that have their wheelchair lift doors next to the ambulatory entrance at the forward end of the bus do so for several reasons. First, the driver is able to go inside the passenger entrance quickly while loading a wheelchair user so that they do not have to leave the person unattended while raised up on the lift. Also, some organizations will have their wheelchair position in the front of the vehicle making the lift access point even closer.