How wide does a doorway need to be for a wheelchair?

We look for 90 cm of clear width at a main entrance and 80 cm on internal doors, measured with the door open to ninety degrees. The US ADA sets 32 inches, about 81.5 cm, as its minimum. A standard manual chair is roughly 65-70 cm across the handrims, so the extra centimetres are working room, not spare.

What is the difference between clear width and nominal door width?

Nominal width describes the door leaf as sold. Clear width is what is left to pass through once the open leaf, the door stop and any seals are subtracted, which typically costs 5-7 cm. A door described as 800 mm often gives around 73-75 cm of real opening, which is below the working minimum.

Clear door width: what it means for travel

Clear width is the usable gap, measured between the face of the open door leaf and the opposite stop, with the door held at ninety degrees. It is not the width of the frame, not the width of the structural opening, and not the size printed on the door in the builder’s merchant catalogue. Our protocol looks for 90 cm at the entrance the general public uses and 80 cm on internal doors, and records the figure as measured rather than as specified, since the two diverge often enough to matter.

The gap between nominal and clear width catches people out constantly. A door leaf sold as 800 mm loses the thickness of the leaf itself where it swings back, plus the door stop and any weatherseal, so the clear opening often lands nearer 73-75 cm. A standard manual wheelchair is around 65-70 cm across the handrims, so those few centimetres are the entire margin, and they disappear the moment a hand is on the rim. This is why we say to measure the hole rather than to trust the specification.

Door furniture is the trap that a width figure never shows. A lever handle, a thumb turn, a push pad or a projecting panic bar all sit inside the clear opening and reduce it. So does a door that does not open a full ninety degrees because it fouls a radiator or a coat hook. Approach angle matters as well: if you cannot come at the door straight on, you need extra space beside the leading edge to position and pull, and a 300 mm margin on the pull side is a common requirement in guidance for exactly that reason.

Weight and closer force are the other half of the question, and they are invisible in any dimension. A fire door with a strong self-closing device can need more force to open from a seated position than many users can produce, particularly when they also have to hold the door and propel forward at once. Heavy revolving doors are worse: the adjacent pass door is often locked, alarmed, or opens onto a step. We note when a door needs real force, because a wide door you cannot open is not an accessible door.

Round numbers vary a little between countries without contradicting each other. The US ADA requires 32 inches of clear width, about 81.5 cm, at a doorway. UK guidance commonly asks for 800 mm clear on internal doors and more at principal entrances, and European codes cluster in the same range. Our 90 cm entrance figure is deliberately above the minimum, because a front door carrying luggage, companions and two-way traffic behaves differently from a corridor door in a drawing.

Clear door width: common questions

How wide does a doorway need to be for a wheelchair?: We look for 90 cm of clear width at a main entrance and 80 cm on internal doors, measured with the door open to ninety degrees. The US ADA sets 32 inches, about 81.5 cm, as its minimum. A standard manual chair is roughly 65-70 cm across the handrims, so the extra centimetres are working room, not spare.
What is the difference between clear width and nominal door width?: Nominal width describes the door leaf as sold. Clear width is what is left to pass through once the open leaf, the door stop and any seals are subtracted, which typically costs 5-7 cm. A door described as 800 mm often gives around 73-75 cm of real opening, which is below the working minimum.