An Accessible Kitchen And Reach

A kitchen is the room where independence is most visible. A resident who can make their own meal has something a resident who cannot be in the kitchen does not.

Most of what makes that possible is reach and clearance, decided before the joinery is built.

Bench height and the seated user

A standard bench is set for somebody standing. For a seated user it is too high to work at and too high to see onto.

Which means a lower work height for at least part of the kitchen, and the honest answer in a shared dwelling is more than one height: a section for a seated user, a section at standard height for a support worker or a standing resident.

Height adjustable sections exist and they work. They cost more, they need power at the carcass, and they are the right answer where the resident profile is likely to change. The provision for them is decided at design, because the power and the structure go in before the bench does.

Knee clearance is the part that gets missed

A lower bench a wheelchair cannot get under is a lower bench nobody can use.

So the clearance under the work surface and under the sink is designed: depth, width and height, with the plumbing and the waste routed out of the knee space rather than through it. Insulated or shrouded pipework under a sink, because a resident with reduced sensation cannot feel a hot waste pipe against their leg.

The same applies to the cooktop if it is to be used from a seated position, with the clearance under it and the controls at the front rather than behind the burners.

Where the appliances go

**The oven at bench height,** side opening, so nothing has to be lifted down from above or up from below, and nothing is carried across a hot door.

**The cooktop with front controls,** and a clear landing space immediately beside it so a hot pan moves sideways rather than across the room.

**The microwave at bench height,** never above the cooktop, which is the most common and most dangerous layout in a standard kitchen.

**The fridge** with the door able to open fully in the available space, and the useful shelves inside the reach band.

**The dishwasher** raised where that suits the resident, which removes a bend nobody designed for.

Reach band and storage

Everything used daily sits between the lower and upper limits of a seated reach, which is a narrower band than a standard kitchen uses.

Which means drawers rather than low cupboards, pull out shelves rather than deep fixed ones, and almost nothing above the reach band. Overhead cupboards that cannot be reached are storage for somebody else, and the dwelling needs that accounted for elsewhere, per [storage in an accessible dwelling](/blog/storage-in-an-accessible-dwelling).

Hardware is operable with a closed fist: D pulls rather than knobs, soft close so a drawer cannot be slammed on a hand.

Controls, switches and taps

Power outlets at the front of the bench or on the splashback inside the reach band rather than at the back of a deep surface.

A lever or sensor tap rather than one that needs a grip and a twist, positioned so it can be reached from a seated position across the sink. Isolation and tempering so hot water at the sink cannot scald, which is the same requirement as in [hot water and scald protection](/blog/hot-water-and-scald-protection).

The general rule for every control in the dwelling is in [switches, outlets and reach ranges](/blog/switches-outlets-and-reach-ranges).

Floor space and the turning circle

The kitchen needs the clear floor space for a wheelchair to turn, measured in the actual layout with the appliance doors open rather than on a plan with everything closed.

A galley kitchen with a bench on both sides needs the width for that circle between them. A single run against one wall is frequently the better answer in a smaller dwelling because the clear space in front of it is uninterrupted.

Why it is built in the factory

The joinery is manufactured and installed under factory conditions, with the services already in the wall behind it, which is the process in [kitchens and joinery in a factory build](/blog/kitchens-and-joinery-in-a-factory-build).

Which means the bench heights, the knee clearances, the appliance positions and the power locations are all fixed in design documentation. Changing a bench height after the module is built means removing joinery and moving services, which is the cost described in [changing a design after fabrication starts](/blog/changing-a-design-after-fabrication-starts).

The upside is that it is set out precisely, to a measured tolerance, rather than fitted to whatever the wall turned out to be.

MADEmodular / MADEbetter.

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