Battery Backup – Wheelchair lifts are powered by electricity: Simply plug it into a power outlet and the lift will grumble to life. Now, image that you or a loved one is using the chair and suddenly the power goes out. This can be very dangerous for disabled persons, because a power outage could leave them stuck on the lift. This is why it is so important to have a battery backup. Battery backups allow the wheelchair lift to continue operating even after a power outage has occurred. The batter backup will enable the person using the lift to get safely to his or her destination. Purchasing a wheelchair lift without a backup is risky, but if your heart is set on a lift without one, make sure you connect a battery backup as soon as possible.

Emergency Communication – In the event a rider does become trapped in a wheelchair lift, it is crucial that he or she can initiate emergency response. Make sure that the wheelchair lift you are interested in features emergency communication. Emergency communication comes in all varieties; it can be as simple as an alarm that alerts those nearby of an incident or it can be a telephone that can be used to dial 911. As long as there is some type of emergency communication readily accessible to the rider, then the wheelchair lift gets a gold star in this safety category.