Accessible seating at fast food tables: the dimensions that work
Accessibility on a quick service floor is mostly arithmetic about the space under and around a table, and most of it costs nothing if it is decided on the drawing rather than after installation.
The space under the table
The accessible position needs 700 to 750 mm of clear height under the table top, 800 mm of clear width between the legs or the pedestal, and 600 mm of depth from the front edge inwards for the knees. Those three numbers eliminate most four-leg tables, whose legs sit exactly where a wheelchair footplate needs to be.
The practical fix is a table with a clear span at one end: a cantilever frame, a single pedestal set back from the edge, or a four-leg table with the legs inset 300 mm from each end. The last is the cheapest and the least stable, and on a fixed bench run it is usually the only option that fits.
The space around it
Approach matters as much as clearance. The wheelchair needs a 900 mm wide route to the table and a 1,500 mm turning circle nearby, which on a quick service floor is usually the aisle. Where the accessible seat is at the end of a fixed run, the end of the run has to be 1,200 mm clear rather than flush to a wall.
Put the accessible position near the entrance rather than at the back of the room. The guest who has to travel the length of a busy floor to reach the one table that fits will usually take the nearest seat and eat badly, which is a design failure that no compliance drawing will show.
What a fixed run does to the options
The bench run is comfortable and efficient and it is the wrong place for an accessible seat, because a bench cannot be entered from the side. Where a room is mostly bench, keep one or two free-standing tables with a clear span as the accessible positions and treat them as part of the layout rather than as an afterthought.
The seat height stays at 450 mm for everyone. Adding a higher seat for accessibility is a common error and it makes the table the problem rather than the solution. What changes is the space, not the height.
Checking it on the plan
Draw the 1,500 mm circle, the 900 mm route and the 800 mm knee space on the layout before the order, and check that none of them crosses the queue band. Where a room is tight, an accessible position at the counter is often the better answer, since counter seating at 650 mm with a 1,050 mm counter and a clear end works without a table at all.
seat count planning should show accessible positions as named seats rather than as space left over. fast food layout planning that treats them as a deduction from the cover count is a plan that will lose them at the first equipment change.
What to specify on the order
Where the accessible seat is a table, specify the clear span explicitly in millimetres on the drawing, and specify which end. For a fixed run, specify the end clearance. Both are details the factory can build to and neither is visible in a photograph of the finished room.
fast food tables with the legs inset 300 mm from each end are the usual answer, and TL-C2007 stacking chair is the chair that most often pairs with them, since it can be moved out of the way from the end of the table without disturbing the neighbouring seat.
Keep the accessible position out of the queue band on the drawing rather than in the memory of whoever built the room. Once a promotional stand or a queue barrier arrives, the clear route disappears and nobody notices until a guest has to ask for help. Marking it on the plan gives the next person a reason to leave it alone.
Reserve two positions where the room allows it, at opposite ends. One accessible table in a sixty-cover room works until it is occupied, and the guest who arrives second then has to choose between waiting and sitting somewhere that does not fit.
What buyers ask about this
Is 700 mm under the table enough?
Enough for a standard wheelchair footplate and tight for a powered one. Where the room serves an older population, 750 mm is the safer figure.
Do accessible seats need to be marked?
Only where the room is large enough for them to be taken. In a sixty-cover room, position is enough.
Can a bench run be made accessible?
At its end, yes, with 1,200 mm clear. From the side, no.
Does an accessible table cost more?
Cantilever frames cost 10 to 15 percent more than four-leg versions. QSR tables with inset legs cost nothing extra and solve most cases.
Related notes
Tray-width aisles: how wide a quick service floor really is
Seat count per square metre: the arithmetic that survives a plan
Send the floor plan, not just a model number
Room size, counter run, covers at peak and the delivery country. The reply carries seat counts, aisle widths and a written quotation.