There are many different ways to devise a seating plan for a wheelchair van.   The decision of how to set up your seating will depend on a number of individual factors.   In some situations, that will make the choice of a center passenger seat an optimal solution.

When deciding how to organize your seating, you’ll want to consider multiple variables.   It’s important to consider how the wheelchair user will be entering and exiting the van and whether he or she will remain seated in the wheelchair once inside the van.   You’ll also want to think about total potential occupancy and the likely use of the van in transporting others.

If you opt for side entry for the wheelchair, you’ll need to decide where the wheelchair user will sit once inside the vehicle.   In many cases, he or she may remain within the chair.   In those cases, you can use tie-downs or an EZ Lock device to keep the wheelchair in place.

In other situations, the wheelchair user may want to sit in a more traditional chair.   This can provide enhanced comfort and may also better enable the user to deal with the inherent height and clearance issues that appear when one opts to remain in the wheelchair.

In those cases, a center passenger seat may be an ideal option.   The wheelchair user can enter the van via the side door and then transfer to the nearby center seat.   If the chair user can manage the transfer without assistance, so be it.   If some additional aid is necessary, one may opt to use a pivoting transfer seat to make things easier.

There are a few obvious advantages to utilizing a center passenger seat.   Comfort and safety in low-clearance vehicles are one reason to prefer this arrangement.   The decision to utilize a center passenger seat does come with some negatives, though.

By having the seat positioned in vehicle’s center, it does minimize the amount of room available to negotiate the wheelchair’s entrance and exit from the vehicle. Many users prefer to place a passenger seat way from the side door, behind the driver’s seat, in response to this challenge.

There’s no single “right way” to arrange seating within a wheelchair van.   While a center passenger seat option may not be optimal for everyone, it is a credible solution for many users who are looking for a way to utilize a standard seat after getting out of a chair.