The evaluation of commercially available wheelchair lift devices and the subsequent development of a nationally accepted standard

Vita.In recent years there has been a trend toward increased mobility of persons disabled by paraplegia and quadriplegia. Part of this trend includes the need for and providing of assistive devices for handicapped drivers. This dissertation concentrates on one type of assistive device: the wheelchair lift. The work documents an effort sponsored by the Veterans Administration to evaluate some commercially available wheelchair lifts and to develop a comprehensive standard for those lifts. Included are discussions of the methods and results of the evaluations, statements of the proposed requirements to which lifts purchased by the Veterans Administration must conform and the rationale for those requirements, and the results of applying the proposed standard to unevaluated lifts