Transportation Standards

Progress in Developing Voluntary Transportation Safety Technology (TST) Standards

Upon recognizing the transportation safety problem for the increasing number of travelers in wheelchairs and the lack of forthcoming government legislation to address this issue, national and international efforts were initiated in the mid-1980s to develop voluntary equipment standards.  In the United States, these efforts began with the formation of the Restraint Systems Task Group of the Society of Automotive Engineers’ Adaptive Devices Subcommittee (SAE ADSC).  Internationally, standards were initiated in Working Group 6 of International Standards Organization (ISO) Technical Committee 173, Subcommittee (TC173 SC1).  The initial efforts targeted wheelchair tiedown and occupant restraint systems (WTORS) that will offer a comparable level of occupant restraint and crash protection to that available to occupants who use the manufacturer-installed and federally-regulated belt restraint systems.  After more than a decade of work, this activity culminated with publication of the SAE Recommended Practice J2249 Wheelchair Tiedowns and Occupant Restraint Systems for Use in Motor Vehicles (SAE J2249), and subsequently by a similar international standard, ISO 10542, Parts 1 and 2.

As the WTORS standards were nearing completion, it became apparent to the members of these SAE and ISO standard development groups that the vehicle seat is a critical part of an effective occupant restraint system, and that a significant portion of the occupant protection problem for occupants seated in wheelchairs lies in the wide variation in designs of manual and powered wheelchairs, which have been developed without consideration for their use as seats in motor vehicles.  Therefore, efforts in the mid-1990s were directed toward developing the first standards to address issues and features of wheelchairs relative to their use as seats in motor vehicles.  In the United States this effort moved from the SAE ADSC to a subcommittee of the Standards Committee on Wheelchairs, known as the RESNA Subcommittee on Wheelchairs and Transportation, or SOWHAT.  The result was the completion of Section 19 of ANSI/RESNA Wheelchair Standards/Volume 1, Wheelchairs for Use as Seats in Motor Vehicles, in May 2000 (American National Standards Institute).  Wheelchairs that comply with this new standard are referred to as WC19 wheelchairs.  Subsequently, ISO published a similar standard, ISO 7176-19.

RESNA’s SOWHAT became a RESNA committee and is now referred to as RESNA COWHAT. One of the most important and immediate activities of COWHAT is to complete Volume 4 of the ANSI/RESNA Wheelchair Standards: Wheelchairs and Transportation.  The purpose for Volume 4 is to bring all standards and supporting documents related to wheelchair transportation safety into one published document.  The initial version of this standard is expected to be balloted within 2008 and will contain:

• WC-18 - a revised and updated version of SAE J2249, Wheelchair Tiedown and Occupant Restraint Systems for Use in Motor Vehicles
• WC19 - a revised and updated version of ANSI/RESNA WC19, Wheelchairs for Use as Seats in Motor Vehicles
• WC-20 - a new standard for Seated Devices for Use in Motor Vehicles (adapted from the draft ISO 16840-4 standard)

It will also contain documents that provide specifications and engineering drawings for equipment used in the test methods of these standards, including the surrogate wheelchair used for WTORS testing, the surrogate wheelchair tiedown and occupant restraint (SWTORS) used for wheelchair testing, and the surrogate wheelchair base (SWCB) used for seating system testing.

For information about participating in the ANSI/RESNA standards process visit the RESNA Technical Standards Board website.

List of Current Published Transportation Safety Technology Standards

SAE Recommended Practice J2249, Wheelchair Tiedown and Occupant Restraint Systems for Use in Motor Vehicles. Society of Automotive Engineers, Warrendale, PA

 RPJ2249-Application Guidelines (ver. June, 1999)

ISO 10542-1, Technical systems and aids for disabled or handicapped persons - Wheelchair tiedown and occupant-restraint systems - Part 1: Requirements and test methods for all systems. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization, 2001.

ISO 2001, 10542-2, Technical systems and aids for disabled or handicapped persons - Wheelchair tiedown and occupant-restraint systems - Part 2: Four-point strap-type tiedown systems. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization, 2001.

ISO 10542-3: Technical systems and aids for disabled or handicapped persons — Wheelchair tiedown and occupant-restraint systems — Part 3: Docking type tiedown systems. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization, 2005.

ANSI/RESNA WC19, Wheelchairs Used as Seats in Motor Vehicles. Wheelchairs/Volume 1: Requirements and Test Methods for Wheelchairs (including Scooters), Section 19: Wheelchairs Used as Seats in Motor Vehicles, American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/Rehabilitation Engineering Society of North America (RESNA), Arlington, VA, May 2000.

• The WC19 Wheelchairs Used as Seats in Motor Vehicles standard is available for purchase from RESNA's website

ISO 7176-19, Wheelchairs: Wheeled mobility devices for use in motor vehicles, International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland, 2001.

• The ISO 7176-19 standard can be purchase from the ISO webstore.

Standards Resources

• Review the recently accepted RESNA Position Paper full explanation of the factors that are needed for Wheelchairs Used as Seats in Motor Vehicles (197KB PDF)
• Wheelchair Transportation Safety Standards Update – presented at the 2011 School Transportation News Annual Conference
• How to Use the ANSI/RESNA Wheelchair Standards to Buy a Wheelchair
• RESNA Technical Standards Board, Chairman: Peter Axelson, Beneficial Designs
  
• External web links on this website to "Standards, Data and Statistics"

COWHAT

• To learn more about the Committee on Wheelchairs and Transportation (COWHAT) or to inquire about membership: contact: Larry Schneider: lws@umich.edu or phone 734-936-1103 at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI).

Last updated: December, 2011