Genre: Information/Explanation

Building a disabled vehicle The disabled vehicle is all but invisible on the road these days because , surprise , surprise , it not only looks just like any other car , it really is like any other car ! You could n't spot it from Adam , whether travelling down the motorway or going to the doctor's surgery , or while doing the weekly shop at your local supermarket . And believe it or not , there are actually tens of thousands of wheelchair accessible vehicles on the roads of the UK on any particular day of the week . Surprised ? You should n't be . It 's been happening unnoticed by the able-bodied community for years , the conversion process which turns an ordinary car into one which a disabled person can make use of or even drive with ease . There are many companies across the country who not only do this work on a daily basis , but have been doing so for years , building a tremendous level of expertise in the process . Wheelchair accessible vehicle Let 's get one particular term out of the way right from the off . You may have come across it before – wheelchair accessible vehicle . Maybe not . It 's a bit of a mouthful , let 's face it , so it 's often shortened to the acronym WAV . It simply refers to a disabled vehicle capable of taking on board a person sitting in a wheelchair . The wheelchair user can be the actual driver of the car , because of all the adaptations available making this possible , or simply be the passenger , driven around by an able-bodied person whenever needed . It is possible to set up either scenario given the huge advances in the design of disabled vehicles nowadays . All WAVs start out as a ' base ' vehicle , the commercial version of the car anyone might buy from their local car dealer's showroom . Of course , not every vehicle is suitable for conversion into a WAV because of the extra safety requirements involved when carrying a wheelchair user . Safety is paramount and therefore an extremely rigorous program of testing is first carried out on any vehicle showing potential . Every aspect is examined , from road holding and engine performance to the amount of space available to both the wheelchair user and anyone else who might be on board . But no matter the vehicle , WAVs tend to have the same sorts of features , such as a means to allow the wheelchair user to get into and out of the vehicle with the minimum of fuss . This is usually achieved by means of a small ramp , normally fitted at the back , which is designed to be deployed easily and then stored away as unobtrusively as possible . The angle the ramp makes with the ground is crucial because the steeper it is , the more difficult it will be for the wheelchair user to go up and down it . A shallow angle is often achieved because part of the conversion process involves a lowering – and strengthening – of the vehicle's floor , necessary to take the extra weight of the wheelchair . And naturally , once inside , the wheelchair has to have a system to securely lock it into place .