Power wheelchairs remain an efficient means of regaining mobility for many people around the world. Unfortunately, some are not able to use power wheelchairs because of difficulties using a standard joystick. People with neuromuscular diseases who experience a loss in muscular strength find it difficult to use of a joystick. In this paper, we explore steering power wheelchairs using a tactile interface on a smartphone. Eleven users with neuromuscular diseases tried this type of steering in free learning sessions. Four among them were able to take part in an experiment where we evaluated their kinematic performance between the use of the tactile steering interface and the joystick. The paper presents data and observations from both sessions and tries to detect tendencies and draw hypotheses that can guide further and in-depth clinical testing of the tactile steering for wheelchair users suffering from neuromuscular diseases. Overall, the user performance with the tablet was close or the same as their performance with the joystick. In addition, the users reported a lesser level of physical demand of the tactile steering over the joystick