European standards for wheelchairs

Manufacturers and suppliers of wheelchairs need to comply with the new European medical device directive, to make their products available on the European market. Within the medical devices directive, the wheelchair standards is under the Level 2 standards and is divided into standards for manual wheelchair and for powered wheelchairs. Five main sections comprise the powered wheelchair standards: the general requirements; performance requirements; electrical requirements; information requirements; and a series of informative annexes. The standard for manual wheelchairs is very similar to the powered wheelchair standard with, the exclusion of the requirements for electrical systems.