Kitchen for wheelchair users: The free space under the work surface is important.
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Converting kitchens for people who use wheelchairs can cost a lot of money. With a few basic measures, it is also cheaper.
ECook spaghetti in a pot and mix with pesto – a delicious and quick meal. But this can be a problem for people in wheelchairs. How can I tell if the water is constantly boiling when I’m sitting at eye level with the pot? How can I drain the water when the stove and sink are five feet apart? Balance the hot pot on your knees and roll to the sink? How do I get to the pesto jar that’s in the top cabinet? How do I wash the dishes if I can’t get under the sink in my wheelchair? “Residential construction must be consistently barrier-free, and the kitchen is part of it,” says Adolf Bauer, President of the Social Association Germany. “Germany has a lot of catching up to do here.”
In Germany, an estimated 1.4 million people are dependent on a wheelchair. It is not known how many of them lack a wheelchair-accessible kitchen. However, since only two percent of the apartments in this country are barrier-free, a great need can be assumed. There are no specifications as to what a wheelchair-accessible kitchen should look like. For example, the model building code only mentions that in buildings with more than two apartments, the kitchen or kitchenette must be barrier-free.
