According to the CDC, 1 in 4 Americans are currently living with a disability. That is about 61 million people that live with some form of a disability that impacts their day to day lives. Disabilities come in many forms from things you can see to things you can’t and it is often the simplest structures in society that people living with disabilities struggle with.

Accessibility can be a huge issue in any environment but especially the workplace. Employees management and customers can struggle with all sorts of capabilities like visual, hearing and physical that could impact their ability to successfully function in a work environment.

How Can Heat Shrink Help?

It is often discussed how heat shrink can help insulate and protect wires and cables. But heat shrink can go beyond just repairing your everyday wiring needs. An overlooked benefit to heat shrink is its ability to make the workplace more accessible by aiding in cable organization, wire identification and grip capabilities.

Heat shrink offers an affordable solution to help combat common accessibility issues in the workplace by providing customizable labelling to help with wire identification, cable organization to improve mobility and wire bundling to help with overall strength and grip.

Read on to find out the three main ways heat shrink can improve accessibility for people living with disabilities:

Cable ties and organizers

Organization has always been a key element to improving any workspace. For those that struggle with physical disabilities, cable ties and other cable management organizers like cable raceways are an essential tool to improving accessibility.

Wires on the ground are susceptible to damage via foot-traffic or wheel traffic. And for people, they are also a huge liability for tripping or causing undue accidents. However, for those that may require assistance moving be that with a wheelchair or a cane, wires on the ground can make it nearly impossible or even fearsome to move about by obstructing pathways.

Cable ties and cable raceways are two easy solutions to improving workplace accessibility. These tools help to keep pathways clear and unobstructed by taking ground wires and enabling them to be placed overhead and out of the way. If wires can not be placed overhead, raceways or floor covers create little bridges that not only protect wires but they eliminate tripping hazards and obstructed pathways for everyone.

Customizable Labels

According to Enchroma, 1 in 12 men, and 1 in 200 women are affected by color blindness or color deficiency. Color blindness is a genetic condition that can prevent people from being able to distinguish or recognize colors. So, while heat shrink color coding to help identify different wires can be good for some, it is not good for all. This is where customizable heat shrink labels can be a huge help for those that are visually impaired.

One great example of customizable heat shrink labels can be found in the online game, Among Us. In the game, players have to complete unique tasks to win. One of these unique tasks is to fix electrical wiring throughout the ship. Players have to match two ends of the same colored wire to complete this task. Cue the heat shrink.

After it’s initial release, many users identified accessibility issues with this task as it prevented people that struggle with color deficiency from distinguishing the different wires. Therefore, later versions of the game included tiny symbols on these wires to help players identify matches without the use of color.

As with Among Us, color coding can help many people identify the right wires, but for people that struggle with color blindness they may need aids to help. Customizable heat shrink gives you the ability to add symbols or text to heat shrink tape and tubing to help people identify wires beyond just color, improving accessibility for everyone.

Bundling to Improve Grip

Another way that heat shrink can help improve accessibility is by improving grip capabilities with heat shrink tubing. There are some disabilities that people experience that can’t be seen right away or get worse with time; things like arthritis, Parkinson’s disease or simply old age can make grip strength and therefore accuracy with wiring very hard.

Heat shrink tubing makes it easier to grab and connect multiple wires by allowing you to bundle them together. Instead of struggling to pick up one wire, or make one simple connection, bundled heat shrink tubing and make electrical issues easier for those struggling with mobility and accuracy.

Want to know more about how heat shrink can improve accessibility?

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand how you can use heat shrink to improve accessibility standards at your workplace. Set up an account or log in to put in an order.

If you have additional questions, visit our learning center or FAQs. Or you can contact us here with questions or to receive a sample.