Accessibility & compliance
Emergency alerts your deaf, blind & DeafBlind employees can actually perceive.
A strobe is useless to someone who can't see it. An alarm horn is useless to someone who can't hear it. TapAlert reaches every worker through touch — a wrist vibration in under a second — so no employee is left unwarned in a break, a lunch call, or an evacuation.
The gap conventional alarms leave open
Deaf & hard-of-hearing
Can't hear an alarm horn or a shouted warning over machinery. A strobe helps — if they're looking at it.
Blind & low-vision
Can't see a strobe or an exit sign. Fire codes recognize only audible signals and visible strobes — neither reaches them reliably.
DeafBlind
Can perceive neither sound nor light. Touch is the only channel that works — and the only one the law's remedies point to.
How TapAlert works
A hard-wired button — at a machine, a dock, or an emergency station — is pressed. Within one second, every wristband on the floor vibrates with the zone and the reason. Workers wear a standalone smartwatch on WiFi; there's no phone, no app, no login, and nothing to see or hear in order to respond. Distinct vibration patterns can separate a break signal from an evacuation, so meaning lives entirely in the touch.
- Reaches everyone at once — no worker relies on sight or sound
- Grab-and-go wristbands — no per-person setup or enrollment
- Runs on existing WiFi — no phones, no personal devices
- Every alert logged — documented proof the accommodation worked
The law names this exact solution
OSHA — 29 CFR 1910.165(b)(2)
Employee alarms must be perceivable "by all employees," and the standard states that "tactile devices may be used to alert those employees who would not otherwise be able to recognize the audible or visual alarm." TapAlert is precisely that tactile device.
ADA Title I — reasonable accommodation
Employers must reasonably accommodate qualified employees with disabilities, including in emergency evacuation. A tactile alerting device is the recognized accommodation for a worker who cannot see or hear a standard alarm.
NFPA 72 & life-safety codes
Standard fire-alarm notification relies on audible signals and visible strobes. TapAlert supplements the required life-safety system with a tactile channel; it does not replace certified fire-alarm equipment.
Getting this wrong is costly: in 2024 a comparable employer paid over $1 million to settle a federal claim for failing to accommodate deaf workers in safety-critical settings.
Questions buyers ask
What is a tactile alert system?
A tactile alert system delivers an emergency signal through touch — a vibration — instead of sound or light, so people who cannot hear an alarm or see a strobe still perceive it. TapAlert is a managed tactile alert system: a button press vibrates every worker's wristband on the floor in under a second, over existing WiFi, with no phones or apps.
What does OSHA require for alerting deaf or hard-of-hearing employees?
OSHA 29 CFR 1910.165(b)(2) requires that an employee alarm be perceivable by all employees, and states that "tactile devices may be used to alert those employees who would not otherwise be able to recognize the audible or visual alarm." A vibrating tactile device is the alerting method OSHA names for deaf and hard-of-hearing workers.
How do you evacuate an employee who can't see a strobe or hear an alarm?
With a tactile (vibrating) alert. Fire codes recognize only audible signals and visible strobes, neither of which reaches a DeafBlind worker — so a wrist vibration is the only reliable way to alert and evacuate an employee who can neither see nor hear. Under the ADA, providing that perceivable alert is a reasonable accommodation.
Make your floor perceivable to everyone.
Become one of our first U.S. sites: a paid 30-day pilot in one zone, and if it doesn't meet spec on your floor, we uninstall it — no further commitment. Tell us about your site and workforce and we'll map a tailored, compliant deployment.