Minimum Door Width for Wheelchair Access

When you have a wheelchair person in your house, you need to make all your doors accessible for smooth accommodation of a wheelchair. For this, you need to expand the space of the exterior and interior doorways depending on your requirements. Suppose there is insufficient space for the wheelchair to move in and out through a doorway. In that case, it might cause multiple issues for the person residing on it. As per general measurements, it is found that a 34-inch doorway to the exterior might be enough for a wheelchair to move through. However, regarding interior doorways, the minimum door width required for wheelchair access will be 32 inches. 

Accessibility requirements for wheelchair users

Making your home accessible for wheelchair users would allow them to enjoy their time at home without getting to one corner of the house. But for that, you need to modify your house carefully. Here are some accessibility requirements for wheelchair users that can be useful for you. 

Garage

To ensure your wheelchair quickly passes through a garage door, you must have a minimum of 9 inches of available vertical clearance. This would allow the standard standing wheelchair to easily pass without being stuck to the garage door. 

Bathroom

The Bathroom is one place where disabled people come together with plenty of injuries. Therefore, you must make all the doors in your Bathroom at least 32 inches wide. The walls in your Bathroom must have grab bars to allow the disabled person to grasp support through them. Moreover, the toilet in your Bathroom should be fitted 35 inches from the floor. At the same time, the sink should be present 34 inches from the floor. 

Bedroom

The door in your bedroom should be modified to 32 inches wide to allow the wheelchair to make its way through easily. Additionally, ensure that the mattress is present only 22 inches from the floor. 

Legal Standards and Regulations for Minimum Door Width

A legal standard and regulation are laid down for minimum door width to help wheelchairs access those spaces easily. According to the American disability act (ADA), the minimum door width required for wheelchairs is 32 inches. Depending upon their legal structure, this number is considered entirely safe for them for all types of wheelchairs.

The standard doorways fitted in a house might not be enough for wheelchair accessibility. In some cases, they come up short, ranging from 28-32 inches. Hence, you might need to extend those spaces according to your requirement. The ADA has also stated that all business and public places must be wheelchair accessible to treat everyone equally. 

The doors shouldn’t have twisters or gripping models in place; instead, they should be replaced with doorknobs. A doorknob would allow disabled people to open those doors single-handedly without requiring the help of others. Even the threshold access to your doorway should be rounded to allow the wheelchair to pass through easily. A 1–2-inch higher threshold wouldn’t adhere to ADA regulations; thus, you need to make at least 3-4 inches to adhere to all laws and regulations by ADA. 

Appropriate Door Width for Wheelchair Accessibility

The standard door width in a house ranges from a maximum of 23-27 inches, which isn’t enough to allow a wheelchair to pass through. The Americans with Disability Act states that every home should make their doorway at least 32 inches wide, or else it would be hard for a wheelchair to come across.

Typically, the width of a wheelchair varies depending on the model you have chosen to purchase. It goes from 21 inches to the narrowest and smallest wheelchairs, while 41 inches of doorway space could be required for heavy-duty wheelchairs. 

Hence, before purchasing that all-accessible wheelchair for your home, you must take adequate steps and measure the doorways. Measuring the doorways to the exterior or interior while spaces through which a wheelchair could be required to pass could help you with the movement.

Remember, the height of your door should be around 80 inches so that the standing category of the wheelchair quickly goes under it. Even though it could be pretty challenging to determine the appropriate door width for wheelchair accessibility, following all the guidelines presented to you by ADA can make your work easier. On predetermining the door width, you can modify your doorways accordingly to operate wheelchairs through them seamlessly. 

Factors influencing minimum door width for Wheelchair access

Several factors influence the minimum door width for wheelchair access. Here are some of those factors discussed briefly in the points below.

Installing offsets

Installing an offset component to your doors would allow them to swing clear in your doorway. In addition, the offsets would add a few more inches to door clearance space, which would help the wheelchair slightly more than before. Even the installation of those offsets or Z-hinges is more straightforward and an inexpensive choice. More than enough common space is added to your doorways with the installation of these offsets. 

Removing doors

One of the best things you can do to allow the wheelchair to move through the doorway spaces easily would be completely remove the doors. When you remove the doors, you wouldn’t have to worry about any handles or knobs present on them. Only widening your doorway space could do the work for you, as door opening and closing will not be required. However, if you are unwilling to compromise on privacy, attaching curtains over the doorways could also do the deed for you. 

Common Door Width for Wheelchair Accessibility

The common door width requirement for wheelchair accessibility tends to be 32 inches depending upon the guidelines laid by ADA. However, that size is subject to changes depending on the type of wheelchair model you are willing to use. But when it comes to the minimum door width requirement the 32 inches will be the standard size. If you are not able to adhere to those wheelchair accessibility standards then the person sitting on those devices wouldn’t be able to enjoy their stay at home. The number of places they move would be restricted as the doorways aren’t suitable for access using wheelchairs. 

Benefits of Adequate Door Width for a Wheelchair User

An adequate door width for wheelchair users provides plenty of benefits to disabled persons. Thus, we have summarised a few of those points for you to make the necessary modifications as you find suitable. 

Smooth movement

Unlike a normal person, the people who are using wheelchairs need to have more space presented to them in the house. There are different types of wheelchairs whose width varies depending upon the space and functions present on them. Thus, you must adequately prepare those doorways or other areas in your house so wheelchairs can easily pass through. This will provide a seamless movement with facing any obstacles in between. 

Fewer modifications

Having an adequate door width already present in your house or workplace would be pretty helpful for all wheelchair users. A door width that adheres to a wheelchair space will save you from modifying your house. The modifications are costly; you must spend excessive capital to expand your home’s space. And, until it becomes suitable for the wheelchair passing through, the money you have decided to spend on modification wouldn’t be worth it. 

Overcoming Challenges in Meeting Minimum Door Width Standard 

You will encounter multiple challenges you must overcome to meet your house’s minimum door width standard. For instance, if you are unaware of those challenges or need to learn how to overcome them. In that case, we have mentioned a few of those in the points below. 

No space for modifications

Suppose you reside in a house unsuitable for constructing extra space or expanding the doorways. Those scenarios could be challenging for wheelchair users as their movement could be restricted to only a few places.

Thus, when modifications aren’t possible, the best thing you can do is find a wheelchair that can go through those spaces. Modifying the wheelchairs instead against through doorways could do the work for you. However, you need to significantly invest in your wheelchairs which wouldn’t come cheap in the first place. 

Pre-planning

When you have a disabled person in your home, the best thing you can do is plan everything accordingly to their requirements. For an average person, it wouldn’t create many problems to move through spaces created by taking the measurements of a disabled person’s wheelchair. Doing this would save you from any future cost of modifications which could have proven to be quite expensive. 

Conclusion

The minimum door width for wheelchair access plays a huge role in ensuring the smooth movement of disabled people. Not having the minimum door width would restrict the movement of wheelchair users to only a few places within the house. Moreover, several factors, benefits, and challenges are required for you to understand before going for the modifications in your house. Hopefully, this article has provided all the information required to understand the relationship between door width and wheelchairs.