- Thread starter WheeledOne
- Start date
Wheelchair Van: Build in DR or Import from USA?
I hope it all works out and you have a fantastic time. And based on your posts I am sure you will. Keep us posted.
This forum is awesome. Without something like it, I couldn't even consider a move like this.
I sincerely appreciate all the great advice and help.
Thanks everyone!
I sincerely appreciate all the great advice and help.
Thanks everyone!
And we are all excited for you and your adventure. We may criticize, be a bit negative but all in all it is a great bunch. And I am sure that as you see people here are more than willing to lend a hand and/or advice. Have a wonderful time.
Did you make the move? What did you end up doing for vehicle? I would love to hear your experience as I am also electric power wheelchair user due to spinal cord injury when I had to crash land my small to seat airplane in Minnesota Valley due to engine failure after takeoff.
I speak Spanish fairly fluently, I've been in contact with the one and only wheelchair taxi provider José in Santo Domingo but fairly expensive and more appointment oriented not so much a taxi. Also talked with Luis who apparently is the only guy in DR that has done his own local produced side and rear entry minivan wheelchair modifications, eight vehicles in total.
Considering next month come for a "evaluation" for one month. Trying to find a wheelchair-friendly vehicle I can use during that time while staying in Santiago. Planning some meetings with various disability groups and service providers as I design and manufacture broad range of assistive technologies to empower mobility impaired disabled individuals with upper extremity limitations and have a project through nonprofit I am director of called Inclusive Adventures which may have ramifications and implications for DR local mobility impaired to be able to help themselves.
Would Love to hear about your experiences?
Mark
This is to interest me also because the mother of my wife is in a motor chair. She has some money to travel and want to go before she gets older but the one trip we went with her to Crete was so difficult and most of time she was in our hotel or hotel restraunt.
She wants warm places and Sosua is good for her winter but the time we spend here we think maybe the walking paths are very difficult for her chair. she would have to use the street for the chair and watch for cars and motors and seems too dangerous.
Maybe Punta Cana is a good place for her chair ?
She wants warm places and Sosua is good for her winter but the time we spend here we think maybe the walking paths are very difficult for her chair. she would have to use the street for the chair and watch for cars and motors and seems too dangerous.
Maybe Punta Cana is a good place for her chair ?
I have zero experience in Punta Cana. On the north coast of the DR, getting around in a wheel chair is not easy. The bad or entire lack of sidewalks and accessibility to buildings, lack elevators, etc. is not conducive to being in a wheel chair and will greatly limit mobility.
I don't think this country offers much for those who are mobility challenged. Daily life would be struggle, lots of obstacles encountered, limited access to many places someone may wish to go and no public transportation options. You definitely don't want to be in a wheelchair on the street and most motorized chairs won't fit on most sidewalks. There are no dropped curbs to get on/off a sidewalk in the first place. Lots of flooding after rains here in parts of Sosua.
I would think that a well researched and accessible resort might be the only feasible option for such people. Not going to be cheap for a long term stay but if the end result trumps the cost. First challenge, getting from the airport to such a resort. Actually, the first challenge will be getting the wheelchair battery on the plane. Second problem keeping it charged. Chronic under voltage here means large batteries take longer to recharge. I would think that someone requiring such a chair would also need someone available to help them with those tasks that can't easily be done sitting down, such as reaching just about everything.
If I was in Europe and disabled, I think I'd find my warm winters and palm trees in a more developed country around the Mediterranean that I can get to by ground transportation. The DR unless money is no object and one travels with an entourage doesn't seem practical at this time.
I would think that a well researched and accessible resort might be the only feasible option for such people. Not going to be cheap for a long term stay but if the end result trumps the cost. First challenge, getting from the airport to such a resort. Actually, the first challenge will be getting the wheelchair battery on the plane. Second problem keeping it charged. Chronic under voltage here means large batteries take longer to recharge. I would think that someone requiring such a chair would also need someone available to help them with those tasks that can't easily be done sitting down, such as reaching just about everything.
If I was in Europe and disabled, I think I'd find my warm winters and palm trees in a more developed country around the Mediterranean that I can get to by ground transportation. The DR unless money is no object and one travels with an entourage doesn't seem practical at this time.
Being European, I can name plenty of wonderful places there, where you can speak Spanish if you wish, which are much safer and much more convenient for disabled persons.
As this is a DR-related forum, I won't go into names nor advice, but I can understand a person coming from NA to prefer the DR for being close and tropical, but if a Spanish-speaking warmish environment is something they want, then the above comment from Cdn_Gringo is to the point...
The price of housing will most likely not be the same as in DR, but that might be compensated by the other pros/cons. You just need to do the complete math and try to see the whole picture, even without experience...
his last posts are back from 2014... people get excited about a dream until the reality kicks in. case with most of those who start posting from "oh my, i LOVE dominican food and culture and i want to move to DR but i have no money and no clue, please help".