What Makes a Dining Table Compliant?

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If you own or operate a restaurant and want to avoid a lawsuit, making your seating accessible needs to be a top priority. We have seen the same boiler plate lawsuit filed against restaurants throughout Southern California and tables / bar seating are almost always cited. Dining serves as the primary function of a restaurant and non-accessible tables are easily identified without the use of a tape measure. Restaurants without accessible seating are easy targets for serial litigants.

So what makes a table compliant anyway?

Contrary to popular belief, posting an international symbol of accessibility is not what makes the table accessible. Accessible tables must be installed at the proper height and provide knee clearance. Accessible tables often have either four legs or two legs with 30" clearance between. Tables with a single leg mounted in the center of the table are almost always non-accessible because they obstruct knee and toe clearances. Below are some of the height and width requirements for accessible tables.

  1. The table top height cannot be lower that 28" and higher than 34"

  2. The knee clearance must be 27" high minimum

  3. The knee clearance width must be 30" minimum

  4. The knee clearance depth must be 19" minimum

This diagram shows a compliant table

This diagram shows a compliant table

This 30" table is not compliant

This 30" table is not compliant

In addition to the above requirements; placement, accessible routes and quantity provided in each functional area must also be taken into consideration. We recommend contacting our CASp Experts to evaluate your seating and all of the public elements in your restaurant to ensure that you are compliant with the complex federal and state standards that apply to your business. 

To learn about how a CASp inspection can reduce your exposure to an ADA lawsuit, Click Here.

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Cory Cabral

Cory Cabral is our co-founder and Senior Certified Access Specialist. He graduated from San Diego State University with bachelors degree in Business Administration. After college he began his career in the sign industry where be became an expert in the field of ADA signage. During that time, he found that many of his clients were being put out of business because of ADA lawsuits. In most cases, the business owners simply did not know that their businesses had barriers to accessibility. He soon began searching for resources to help his clients avoid accessibility lawsuits and discovered the California Certified Access Specialist program. After immersing himself in all aspects of accessibility in the built environment by studying at the CalCasp Academy and the DSA, he became a California Certified Access Specialist. He is now CASp-630 and helps businesses limit exposure to ADA lawsuits by providing them with the resources necessary to make their products and services accessible to all.