If you have a wheelchair, the doorway must be a minimum of 36 inches wide—measure the width of your chair so you'll know what you have. Rather than paying for a new doorway to be cut and rebuilt, remove the door and its hinges, molding or threshold.
If you want to keep the door to the kitchen, buy brand name hinges which will give you a couple more inches of room.
If the only way into the kitchen is up or down stairs, it may be possible to ramp it if it's not too steep.
Electrical outlets and light switches can be easily relocated by an electrician and lighting can be enhanced by adding track or overhead fixtures, or a portable desk lamp on the counter.
Since cabinets are expensive to replace, removing a cabinet door below the sink or counter will provide knee space so you can work from a seated position. Remember to insulate the pipes below the sink to prevent scalding legs.
Use turntables inside cabinets to give you access to the whole cabinet.
It may be necessary to replace the cabinets with lower ones. Although costly, this may be all you need to make the kitchen useable. Vertically adjustable models can be raised and lowered; roll-out shelves are much more useful within any cabinet. New cabinets should be placed high enough to allow toe space for wheelchair footrests. Cabinets may also be reinstalled higher to accommodate someone tall or unable to bend down.
A cook-top range is the most versatile option, especially when the space below is kept free for leg space, rather than putting a cabinet there to store pots and pans.
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