On a beautiful, sunny Sunday afternoon, most people want to get out of their houses and go somewhere, be it the park for a walk or the mall for some shopping. Patients who use wheelchairs are no exceptions, and manufacturers of wheelchair automobile lifts are well aware of these patients' needs.

"The best thing about these lifts is that they allow people to get their wheelchairs out where they can use them, rather than being stuck at home," says Mike Shaw, owner of Mobility Cart Lifts. "They are able to take their wheelchairs to the park or the supermarket and do more normal activities. Lifts enhance their lifestyles."

Indeed, wheelchair lift manufacturers are generally optimistic about the prospects for this market segment. With baby boomers getting older but at the same time wanting to maintain their active lifestyles, manufacturers foresee continued growth in the power wheelchair market-and that will translate into greater demand for lifts.

"I see a tremendous opportunity because power chair sales are growing fairly rapidly, and the units themselves are relatively heavy for a disabled or elderly person to move around," says Jim O'Neill, director of sales and marketing, Harmar Auto Lift. "So if they want to transport from one location to another, lifts assist that process greatly."

Caution: Challenges Ahead BUT EVEN AS lift manufacturers foresee a bright future, they also realize they will encounter formidable challenges-one being that automobile companies are making cars smaller and lighter, which presents difficulties when installing a lift.

"The automakers are making it real tough to mount a lift on the back of a vehicle," says Greg Malloy, president, Worldwide Mobility Lift Manufacturing. "The frames on cars have changed so that there's not much to attach a hitch to for a lift to be put on a car. This is a major problem and will continue to be so."

Further complicating the problem is that wheelchairs are getting heavier and bigger. Manufacturers are designing lifts to handle them, but it is requiring more sophistication to keep within the limited size and weight parameters.

"What we're trying to do is maintain the strength and integrity of our lifts but make them lighter weight and have more function," says Bob Dunlap, president, Wheelchair Carrier. "With cars getting smaller, one of our challenges is to use different products and alloys to make lifts lighter while keeping costs down."

Going Automatic IN ADDITION TO producing lighter lifts, manufacturers are trying to make units that are easier for patients to use. One way to do this is with more automation.

"I think that one change that everyone is striving for is to make a fully automatic lift," O'Neill says. That would, he says, "make it as easy for people as possible to utilize that product without belts, cords and straps to tie down."

Manufacturing automatic lifts presents a host of issues and problems not present in constructing manual lifts, manufacturers say. While manual lifts are essentially universal and can work with just about any chair, automatic lifts are another story. Because every power wheelchair is different, automatic lifts must be built to accommodate these differences, specifically in the platforms and docking devices that secure the chair to the lift.

"With different wheelchair varieties, it's really difficult because they have different tire sizes and wheel locations," Shaw says. "Some have large drive wheels, while others have small drive wheels, and some have front-wheel drive, while others have mid-wheel drive. So just designing a good product becomes a significant challenge."

These engineering and design problems along would be daunting enough, but power wheelchair companies are also bringing out new models constantly, which forces lift manufacturers to update their units and produce new lifts continually.

"Keeping pace is going to be tough because we can't drive the market, but instead we are dependent on the consumer's taste for mobility units," O'Neill says. "Wheelchair manufacturers keep coming out with new and different models, so keeping pace with that while still manufacturing for profit is a real challenge. And then to be right about whether a particular lift will be a strong national seller is also a big challenge."

Under 'Big Three' Scrutiny DESPITE THESE PROBLEMS and challenges, lift manufacturers are encouraged that car companies are starting to pay more attention to this industry. The "Big Three" automakers-DaimlerChrysler, Ford and General Motors-already have mobility programs that rebate up to $1,000 for installing adaptive and lifting devices into a vehicle. And they are considering getting more involved in the market, which could generate annual revenue of $4 billion on estimated sales of 30,000 to 50,000 units. The automakers' involvement could come in the form of making vans more compatible to modification by offering wider doors, rear doors and more accessible seats, for example.

"Up until now, the number of vans being sold for conversion to the disabled community hasn't been substantial enough to get the attention of the Big Three," says John Vincent, sales manager, Universal Motion. "But with the aging of the baby-boom generation drumming up the potential of 30,000 to 50,000 units a year in additional sales, you're going to get an awful lot of powerful attention drawn to this particular aspect of the business. And car manufacturers know that they want to get in on it."

Mike Bruno, chairman and chief executive officer, Bruno Independent Living Aids, Oconomowoc, Wis.; Bob Dunlap, president, Wheelchair Carrier, Waterville, Ohio; Marco Ferrara, president, and John Vincent, sales manager, Universal Motion, Toronto; David Hand, director of sales, Concord Elevator, Brampton, Ontario; Greg Malloy, president, Worldwide Mobility Lift Manufacturing, Chandler, Ariz.; Greg Ness, sales manager and design engineer, The Flinchbaugh Co., York, Pa.; Jim O'Neill, director of sales and marketing, Harmar Auto Lift, Sarasota, Fla.; and Mike Shaw, owner, Mobility Cart Lifts, Mesa, Ariz.

THE CONTINUED GROWTH of the wheelchair automobile lift market and the strong possibility of greater involvement by carmakers already have attracted the government's attention. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this year will release new safety rules regarding vehicles modified for disabled drivers.

"Transportation bodies have started to look at this industry and recognize that as more vehicles require modification and as these conversions get more sophisticated, regulations and guidelines have to be established," says Marco Ferrara, president, Universal Motion. "They want to make sure that there's some sort of conformity to automotive standards."

ANOTHER major segment in the wheelchair lift market is platform and stair lifts used for residential and commercial purposes. The major issue confronting manufacturers in this area is dealing with the codes that regulate this industry.

Manufacturers abide by the national codes established by the American National Standards Institute, but trying to comply with the many codes at the state and local levels can be difficult.

"All of our products meet all safety requirements according to the national codes," says David Hand, director of sales, Concord Elevator. "But when it comes to individual states, some have inspectors who deal with a different year of the code or might not be dealing with the most current issue of the code or might want to alter the code to suit their own purposes."

In many cases, manufacturers depend on home medical equipment providers for information so that the lifts will follow the local codes.

"We rely on dealers to tell us what they want and don't want on the products because they're more familiar with state and city inspectors than we are," Hand says. "We'll provide a product that complies with the base of the code, then the dealer might want something extra that's an option, as opposed to what the national code enforces."