Kitchens

One area that is often neglected as far as accessible design is concerned is the kitchen. There are many details that don’t seem to get taken care of. That is because unless you have ever had to use a wheelchair or even had to use crutches for any length of time you are not aware of some of the barriers or inconveniences that exist in the ordinary kitchen.

Let’s start with the most common item in any kitchen, and that is the cabinet. There are several things you need to keep in mind when you order or build kitchen cabinets. The overall height of the base cabinets should not exceed 32” including the counter top. Also, the toe kick changes to 9” tall by 6” deep to allow for a wheelchair foot plate. The base cabinet that houses the dishwasher needs to be raised 9” to make loading and unloading easier for the disabled. Of course, upper cabinets are only useful for a disabled person who can stand, even for short periods of time. For a wheelchair user, they are not of much use if the spacing between the base and upper cabinets is left at 18”. While there is no specific regulation covering this, I always change this spacing to 12” so that at least the lower two shelves of the upper cabinets are within reach.

There three additional areas we need to focus on: the stove, sink and oven. A stove in the conventional sense cannot be used in an accessible kitchen. Instead a cook top must be used so that knee space under the cook top can be either custom built or it can be ordered from a manufacturer. Kraft Maid, for example, has an entire line of accessible cabinets. The second area, the sink, also needs knee space underneath for the same reason as the stove. Also the sinks themselves will have to special order because the drains will have to be to the back of the sink. This will allow for the installation of the disposal unit. The final area we need to look at is the oven. Conventional thinking would say use a standard wall oven. This would be okay except in the case of a wheelchair user, due to the fact that they would be lifting over their head to take something out of the oven, which could be dangerous. Because of this, a single oven is placed in a lower cabinet, which will prevent the wheelchair user from having to lift above their head.

There are a few final things that I want cover. One is electrical outlets, which are usually placed above or in the back splash. Now for someone who can stand this is fine. Again we come back to a wheelchair user, whose reach is limited, not being able to use them. Instead of installing them in the back splash, use the front of the cabinet. Or as an alternative they can be placed in the top of the counter. There are specially designed outlets for this purpose, however this is more expensive. Once again, we need to consider lighting. We must consider the ability of the client to service whatever fixtures are installed. The use of florescent and LED bulbs is recommended.

That's all we have this time. Again if you have questions I have not covered in this post, feel free to leave them for me in the comments section and I will try to answer them in a future post. Until next time breathe Peace and God's Love..........