NMEDA QAP: What the Dealer Accreditation Means When You Buy a Wheelchair Van

What NMEDA QAP is

The National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association (NMEDA) is the trade group for companies that sell wheelchair vans and install mobility equipment. QAP, its Quality Assurance Program, is the accreditation it gives a dealer location after an audit. The current rules, QAP-101, are the 2026 edition, effective January 1, 2026. It accredits the shop that builds or services a van, not an NEMT company. Accreditation for your own company is a different program, covered in NEMT accreditation.

Accreditation is open to dealers and installers whether or not they belong to NMEDA. A NMEDA member that sells adapted vehicles or installs equipment for consumers must hold it. Each accredited location is audited at least once a year by an outside audit firm, against the QAP rules, NMEDA’s installation guidelines, parts of the ADA, the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), and the federal rules on disabling safety features. A company with several locations needs each one accredited for the work done there.

The rules cover commercial vehicles as well as personal ones, though a few sections, such as the out-of-area service agreement, apply only to personal use vehicles.

Two companion programs sit beside it. MQAP (rules QAP-104, 2026 edition) accredits the companies that build conversions and equipment. The Compliance Review Program (CRP) has engineers review a maker’s crash and compliance test results. NMEDA’s safety reviewed list shows the conversions CRP has accepted, and it covers personal use conversions only.

The four accreditation types

A location is accredited for each kind of work it does, so check the type against the job you are buying.

Type	What it covers	NEMT example
Type 1, mobility equipment installer	Lifts, tie-downs, portable ramps, transfer seats, and other low-tech equipment	Installing a platform lift or new tie-downs
Type 2, structural vehicle modifier	Conversion kits, lowered floors, raised roofs, raised doors, and support cages, built to CRP-accepted designs	A lowered-floor minivan or a raised-roof full-size van
Type 3, high-tech driving system installer	Low and zero effort steering and braking, electronic gas and brake	Driving controls for a driver with a disability, not passenger equipment
Type 4, off-site installer	Low-tech work away from the shop, such as hitch-mounted equipment	Low-tech work at your yard

A company that sends all of its structural work to another shop cannot be accredited as a structural modifier, and it may not advertise as if it does that work. That outside shop must itself be QAP accredited.

What a QAP dealer must do for you

The 2026 rules put these duties on every accredited location:

• A QAP label on the van. Every accessible vehicle the location processes gets a numbered QAP label, including used vehicles and pass-through vehicles with no equipment added. The number stays with the vehicle. If the van later goes to another accredited dealer, the first label stays and the new dealer adds its own beside it.
• A job file for seven years. The file ties to the label number and lists the VIN, model year, mileage, every piece of equipment by maker and model, the technicians, the final inspection checklist, proof you were shown how to use the equipment, and the delivery confirmation. For a commercial van not built for one named driver, it adds the NHTSA make-inoperative form, a weight analysis for vehicles of 10,000 pounds GVWR and under, and a wiring diagram. The dealer logs the job within 30 days of delivery.
• Certified people. In the US, welders certified to AWS D1.1 or D1.3 do all welding, technicians are certified on the equipment they install, and each location keeps at least one NMEDA Certified Technician, recertified every two years.
• Calibrated scales. Weight analysis is done on four-corner scales calibrated at least once a year to a standard traceable to NIST, so the finished van keeps its load capacity.
• A 24/7 emergency line. Customers reach an answering service or service number after hours. The location responds within 30 minutes, checks that the situation is not life threatening, and tries to talk the caller through the backup procedure. If that fails, a service person is sent.
• Insurance. Garage keepers liability, plus products and completed operations coverage of at least $1,000,000 per occurrence and in aggregate.
• NHTSA registration. The location registers as a modifier with NHTSA, and the auditor checks it at the first audit and every year after.
• Complaints through mediation. Every accredited location must follow the outcome of NMEDA’s mediation process.

An audit finding has a clock. A major finding must be fixed within 14 days and a minor one within 28, or the location is suspended. A suspended location that applies QAP labels is terminated, and a terminated one must stop using the QAP and NMEDA names and return its labels.

How QAP fits with the federal conversion rules

The federal conversion rules apply whether or not a shop is QAP accredited. A converter that alters a new van before its first retail sale adds its own certification label next to the maker’s (49 CFR 567.7). A repair shop that modifies a titled van and makes part of a listed safety standard inoperative adds a modifier label and gives the owner a document listing the standards the van may no longer meet (49 CFR part 595, subpart C). Our guide to wheelchair van conversions explains both labels and what brokers do with them.

QAP adds a check on top. For a new personal use conversion, the dealer must hold proof that it meets the federal standards, and a conversion on the CRP list meets that test. Commercial conversions that are not on the list must still meet every federal, state, and DOT rule. The manufacturer rules reach a commercial conversion when it is sold to a NMEDA member, or when the buyer, purchase order, third-party payer, or a government agency requires QAP. Only then can CRP ask the converter for its compliance data. If you buy straight from a converter or from a company outside NMEDA, write QAP into the purchase order.

NMEDA’s manufacturer rules add a screen for a new conversion put on a used van. The shop does the work as a modifier, so the van gets no alterer label. A NMEDA member or a converter with posted conversions must screen the van first and keep the inspection report for seven years. At a minimum the van needs a clean title with no salvage, junk, flood, rebuilt, or scrap declaration, no collision work to the frame or reported structural damage, no major accident including an airbag deployment, no warning lights, and no open safety recalls. See buying a used wheelchair van for the rest of a used van inspection.

Who requires a QAP dealer

QAP becomes a requirement when a buyer or payer writes it into its rules. The public programs that do so mostly fund vans for riders and their families:

• New York ACCES-VR. The vocational rehabilitation agency requires its vehicle modifiers to follow NMEDA’s QAP practices as it has modified them, and to carry at least $1,000,000 in liability coverage. NMEDA membership is not required, only QAP participation.
• New York OPWDD. Every vehicle modification under its home and community-based services waiver must be done by a NMEDA QAP accredited installer or modifier.
• Pennsylvania OVR. Its driving and vehicle services policy (effective March 7, 2024) says all modifications must follow NMEDA’s QAP guidelines.

VA takes a different route. Its adaptive equipment rules pay providers directly only when they are registered in NHTSA’s Modifiers Identification Database, and VA does not pay the labor costs of unregistered providers (38 CFR 17.157 and 17.158). VA says it does not approve or endorse any modifier.

For your own fleet, read the vehicle section of each broker agreement and any grant you buy with. Our guide to choosing a wheelchair van for NEMT covers what brokers check at inspection.

Using QAP when you buy a van, step by step

Here is how the accreditation works in practice for a company adding a lowered-floor minivan to its fleet.

1. Find dealers. Search NMEDA’s dealer locator by state or within 25 to 200 miles of your yard.
2. Check the type. Ask for the certificate of accreditation. A lowered floor is structural work, so the location should hold Type 2 or name the accredited shop that does it.
3. Ask for the compliance proof. For a fleet van, ask for the converter’s alterer label or the modifier’s document, and the converter’s test reports. The CRP list alone covers only personal use conversions.
4. Write it into the purchase order. Name QAP, the QAP label, the job file documents for a commercial van, and the warranty. MQAP makers must give at least a one-year warranty on their products.
5. Collect the papers at delivery. Note the QAP label number and ask for copies of the federal label or modifier document, the weight analysis, the wiring diagram, and the delivery confirmation showing you were taught to use the ramp or lift. File them with the vehicle record your broker inspects.
6. Put the emergency line in dispatch. Save the dealer’s 24/7 number on the driver’s phone and the dispatch board.

Say the ramp jams at 6:40 p.m. with a rider aboard after dialysis. The driver calls the dealer’s line, and for a conversion problem someone must respond within 30 minutes and try to talk the driver through the backup procedure. Your dispatcher decides at once whether to send a backup van, the same way the emergency evacuation drill treats a lift that will not move. Ramps and lifts fail in different ways, which our ramp or lift guide compares.