Snow on the ramp: keeping a home wheelchair ramp usable all winter

How do you clear snow from a wheelchair ramp?

Start before anyone needs the ramp, and work in this order:

1. Clear the handrails first, so whoever is clearing has something to hold, then work from the top of the ramp down. EZ-ACCESS, a ramp maker, recommends both.
2. Use a plastic shovel or a push broom. EZ-ACCESS says metal shovels can scratch and gouge aluminum ramps, and that for light snow a thick-bristled push broom works better than a shovel.
3. Clear the full width, edge to edge. A ramp narrowed by snow leaves no room to correct a wheel that slips.
4. Then the landings, the doorway and the ends, where the ramp meets the porch and the driveway. EZ-ACCESS lists all of them.
5. Never pour hot water on it. EZ-ACCESS warns that it refreezes quickly into worse ice than you started with.

On an aluminum ramp with an expanded-metal surface, meltwater drains through instead of pooling. Solid surfaces need treatment after clearing.

What ice melt is safe on a ramp?

It depends on what the ramp is made of:

Ice melt guidance and the aluminum and wood notes come from EZ-ACCESS, which says rock salt corrodes aluminum.

New concrete needs extra care in its first winter; the best ice melt for concrete explains why. Keep any ice melt thin, and sweep up leftover grit once the ice is gone, or it rides indoors on the wheels. For more grip on wood, use grip tape or adhesive traction treads made for ramps, not loose mats, which can shift or curl under a caster.

Why do the landings and the bottom of the ramp matter most?

Because that is where wheels stop. A 2024 paper in Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences, from researchers building a winter training course for manual wheelchair users, summarizes the hazards. Snow or slush at the lower end of a ramp, or where the ramp meets the ground, can stop the small front casters suddenly and tip the chair. Deeper snow and plow ridges let the casters sink, and pushing harder to get over them risks tipping backward, especially on ramps. A year-long study the authors cite found wheelchair users made fewer trips on winter days with snow on the ground.

Landings are where a chair stops and turns. Michigan's residential code requires a landing at the top and bottom of every ramp, wherever a door opens onto it and wherever it changes direction (R311.8.2). The 2010 ADA Standards, written for public buildings rather than homes, set ramp landings at least 60 inches long, 60 by 60 inches where a ramp turns, and use a 60-inch circle as the space a wheelchair needs to turn around. A shovel-width path across a landing leaves nothing like that. Clear landings to their edges, and never pile snow on them or against the door.

What about the path from the car to the ramp?

The ramp is only half the route.

• A strip beside the car door. The ADA Standards set access aisles beside accessible parking at least 60 inches wide, and a van space may be narrower only if its aisle is 96 inches wide. At home those make good targets: about 5 feet of clear, level pavement beside the door the chair uses, and 8 feet if a van deploys a side ramp or lift.
• A level path to the foot of the ramp. The same paper notes that cross slopes, such as crossing a driveway at an angle, can make a manual chair slide sideways when traction is poor. Clear the path straight across the drive, and treat it.
• The ridges. Clear any ridge between the car and the ramp, and the one the road plow leaves at the end of the driveway if a ride or a paratransit van picks up at the street; why the city plow blocks your driveway explains it.

Who else needs the ramp clear?

Caregivers, home health aides, therapists and deliveries often use the same entrance. Agree on a storm plan: which entrance is cleared and treated, who clears before the first visit of the day, and how everyone will know it is done. If the ramp is the only step-free way in, it is also the way out in an emergency.

What should your snow company know?

Before the season, tell the company:

• That there is a ramp, where it is, and what it is made of. For aluminum: plastic shovels and brooms only, and no rock salt.
• Whether the ramp, its landings and the path from the parking spot are part of the visit. Get the answer in writing; if you hire residential snow removal, ask the same question.
• Where snow must never be piled: on landings, at the foot of the ramp, in the strip beside the car.
• Any departure time, such as a dialysis or therapy appointment.

At Macomb Lawn & Snow Solutions, mobility needs, surfaces and departure times go on the stop notes the crew sees. For setting up service for someone who cannot shovel, see snow removal for seniors, and for the steps beside the ramp, how to keep porch steps from icing. Businesses have their own legal duties for accessible routes; see ADA and snow.

Do ramp covers and canopies help?

Yes. A roof over a ramp keeps most snow and freezing rain off it, which means less clearing and less ice. But a canopy is a structure: it has to carry snow, its runoff has to land somewhere other than the ramp or the walk, and it may need a building permit. Ask your building department before you add one.