How many accessible seats does your dining room owe?

Enter your covers and we'll run the 5%. Add the table and aisle dimensions you have and the diagrams grade them live against the 2010 ADA Standards — surface height, knee clearance, clear floor space, route width. Leave a field blank and it stays unmarked rather than guessed.

Read this first

A planning aid, not a plan review

Everything here follows the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design. Your state accessibility code, your local building code, and the authority having jurisdiction reviewing your permit can all be stricter than the federal minimum, and theirs is the ruling that counts. Nothing on this page is legal advice or a substitute for a plan review. Run your layout past your architect or code consultant before anyone builds anything.

Your room

Covers is the only field we need. Everything else sharpens the check — leave a box empty and that requirement reads as not yet measured, never as a failure.

Total seating capacity · requiredEvery seat in the house, indoors and out.

Dining surfaces · optionalTables, counters, and bar runs you're seating people at.

Your table, in inches

Surface height · optionalFinish floor to the top of the surface.

Knee clearance height · optionalFloor to the underside of the apron or top.

Knee clearance width · optionalClear width under the surface, base excluded.

Knee clearance depth · optionalHow far in from the front edge the knee space runs.

Your route

Narrowest aisle width · optionalTightest point on the way to the accessible seats, chair back to chair back.

ADA seating check — 6 accessible seats required

120 covers · 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design · Planning aid only, not legal advice or a plan review. Commercial Furniture Hub.

Clearance diagrams

Schematic — not to scale

Dimensions turn mint when what you entered meets the standard, rose when it misses, and stay grey until you measure. Where you haven't measured, the label shows the code minimum.

Side elevation

Top view

Accessible seating count
§226.1Count it on your plan
Measured
120 covers
Required
6 accessible seats
Five percent of 120 covers is 6, and fractions round up, so you're looking at 6 accessible seats. These are seats, not tables — one accessible table with two clear positions counts as two.
Dining surface height
§902.3Not yet measured
Measured
not yet measured
Required
28″–34″ above the finish floor
Measure from the finish floor to the top of the surface. Standard dining height at 30″ clears this comfortably; the trouble starts when a concept leans on 36″ counters or 42″ bar tops.
Knee and toe clearance
§306.3Not yet measured
Measured
not yet measured
Required
27″ high · 30″ wide · 19″ deep
Heightmin 27″not measured
Widthmin 30″not measured
Depthmin 19″not measured
Measure under the surface at the front edge: 27″ of height, 30″ of width, 19″ of depth, each one on its own. Anything you leave blank stays unmarked rather than guessed.
Clear floor space
§305Verify on your plan
Measured
verify on your plan
Required
30″ × 48″ per accessible seat
Each accessible seat needs a 30″ by 48″ clear floor space with the 48″ running toward the table, so a guest can pull straight in on a forward approach. It's allowed to overlap the knee space under the surface. Dimensions alone can't tell us whether it's there — scale it on your plan.
Accessible route width
§403.5.1Not yet measured
Measured
not yet measured
Required
36″ clear
Measure the tightest point on the way to your accessible seats — and measure between chair backs with the room full, not between table edges.
Dispersal of accessible seats
§226.2Verify on your plan
Measured
verify on your plan
Required
spread across every seating type and area
Accessible seats have to be distributed across the seating types and areas you offer — dining room, bar rail, patio, banquette run — not clustered by the service station. If a guest can pick the patio, a wheelchair user gets that same pick.

Based on the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design. State and local accessibility codes and your authority having jurisdiction may be stricter. This is a planning aid, not legal advice and not a plan review.

How we run this check

The count comes first. Section 226.1 of the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design asks for at least 5% of the seating spaces at dining surfaces to comply with section 902, and section 104.2 says fractions round up rather than down. So 120 covers becomes six accessible seats, 41 covers becomes three, and even a twelve-seat room owes one. We count seats, not tables, because that's how the standard counts — an accessible table with two clear positions under it settles two of them.

Then the furniture has to actually work. Section 902.3 puts the dining surface between 28 and 34 inches above the finish floor, which is why a 30-inch dining table passes and a 36-inch counter or 42-inch bar top doesn't. Under that surface, section 306.3 wants 27 inches of knee height, 30 inches of knee width, and 19 inches of knee depth measured in from the front edge, with toe clearance under section 306.2 below it. We check those three independently because they fail independently.

Where specs actually go wrong

Knee height is the one that catches people, and it's a furniture problem rather than a floor plan problem. A 30-inch-high table sounds comfortably inside the range until you add a 4-inch apron and the underside lands at 26 inches — an inch short, on a table that measured fine. Pedestal bases are the other one: a wide cast foot or a four-star base that spreads into the knee zone eats the 30-inch width or blocks the 19 inches of depth. When we spec accessible tables we look at the underside height and the base footprint on the drawing, not the catalogue height. A slimmer apron, a thinner top, or a different base usually buys back the inch you need without changing the look of the room.

Two requirements can't be computed from dimensions, so we flag them for you to verify rather than pretend to grade. Section 305, applied through 902.2, needs a 30-by-48-inch clear floor space at each accessible seat with the 48 inches running toward the table for a forward approach — that space may overlap the knee space under the surface, but it has to exist on the plan. And section 226.2 requires the accessible seats to be dispersed among the seating types and areas you offer, so the compliant tables can't all live in one corner by the service station.

Last, the route. Sections 402 and 403.5.1 want 36 inches of clear width on the way to accessible seating, with a pinch to 32 inches permitted only for a maximum of 24 inches of length. Measure it between chair backs with the seats occupied — that's the aisle your room really has at full service, and it's usually several inches tighter than the gap between table edges. If your layout isn't settled yet, settle the aisles and the table grid first, then bring the numbers back here.

One more time, because it matters: this is a planning aid built on the federal 2010 Standards. State accessibility codes, local building codes, and the authority having jurisdiction on your permit can all be stricter, and their reading is the one that governs. Nothing here is legal advice or a substitute for a plan review. When you know what you need, send us the plan and we'll spec the tables that hold the clearances.

Questions we get a lot

How many accessible seats does a 120-seat restaurant need?

Six. Section 226.1 of the 2010 ADA Standards requires at least 5% of seating spaces at dining surfaces to comply, and 5% of 120 is 6. Fractions always round up, and no dining room drops below one accessible seat no matter how small it is. Note that the count is seats, not tables — a single accessible table with two clear positions gives you two of the six.

Can bar-height or counter-height seating count as accessible seating?

No. Section 902.3 puts the accessible dining surface between 28 and 34 inches above the finish floor. A 30-inch dining table clears it, a 36-inch counter and a 42-inch bar top don't. If your concept is counter-led, you still need dining-height surfaces somewhere in the room to carry the accessible seats — and section 226.2 wants them spread through the space, so a lone accessible table tucked by the kitchen door isn't the answer either.

What does ADA knee clearance actually mean when I'm buying tables?

Three separate numbers under the surface, from section 306.3: at least 27 inches of height, 30 inches of width, and 19 inches of depth measured in from the front edge. In practice the height is what fails. A 30-inch-high table with a 4-inch apron leaves 26 inches of knee height and misses by an inch. Ask for the underside height on the spec sheet, not the table height, and watch pedestal feet that spread into the knee space.

Do booths and banquettes count toward the 5%?

A fixed booth can't provide the 30-by-48-inch clear floor space a wheelchair user needs to pull in, so a booth seat doesn't serve as an accessible seating space. The accessible positions have to come from surfaces a guest can roll up to. Booths still count toward your total seating capacity, which means they raise the number of accessible seats you owe without contributing any.

Can all the accessible tables sit together in one section?

No. Section 226.2 requires accessible seating to be dispersed across the types and areas of seating you offer — dining room, bar rail, patio, private room. The point is choice: if a guest can ask for the patio, a wheelchair user gets the same ask. Clustering the compliant tables in one corner is one of the more common findings in a plan review.

How wide does the aisle to accessible seating have to be?

The accessible route needs 36 inches of clear width under sections 402 and 403.5.1. A brief pinch down to 32 inches is permitted, but only for a maximum of 24 inches of length — that's a doorway or a column, not a whole aisle. Measure between chair backs with the seats occupied, because that's the width the room actually has during service, not the width between table edges on the drawing.

Need tables that actually hold the clearances?

We supply dining-height tables, tops, and bases built to keep the 28–34 inch surface and the knee space under it. Send us your plan and seat count — we'll spec the accessible tables and price the whole floor, with lead times and freight.

Tell us what you need