#epilepsy

[amethystsoda]

PSA: if you're watching the new Knives Out mystery (Wake Up Dead Man), please be aware that around 1 hr 34 minutes in, there's a series of flashing/strobing lights. the sequence lasts about a minute.

[kunaigirl]

Me: "Damn people are REALLY BAD at knowing when to tag their eyestrain art/images...either that or they just don't care about photosenitive epileptic people like me. I feel really sad now." Person: "But Allison, what if they just don't know or understand what qualifies as eyestrain and what doesn't?" Me: "You know what? That could be a factor...While it is always better to be safe rather than sorry (so YES people should always tag eyestrain even if they're unsure if it "counts" or not) maybe you've got a point?"

Anyways! HERE'S YOUR HANDY GUIDE TO WHAT CAN COUNT AS EYESTRAIN! I'm pulling this straight from the Artfight rules page about what needs to be labeled and filtered as eyestrain because it's VERY helpful and VERY accurate! I also know not everybody has an AF account and might not always have access to this handy guide, and this is an important resource; That's why I'm sharing it here! (under the cut)

PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY!!! THIS IS ABOUT THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF OTHERS!!!

Full eyestrain AF page link

"But Allison! How were you able to screenshot that example if you're so sensitive to eyestrain?"

I dimmed the HELL out of my computer screen and looked away while taking the screenshot and did the same when putting it into this post, that's how lol. BUT YEAH ANYWAYS!!! Once again:

PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY!!! THIS IS ABOUT THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF OTHERS!!!

[spoonfulofhannah]

I wish all chronically ill and disabled people a very “doctors listening to you” November

[this-is-seizurism]

The goal of this account is to spread seizure awareness, education, ableism/discrimination of them.

Please feel free to send in asks regarding your experience with seizures and they will be responded to.

This account does take inspiration from those such as @this-is-ableism @thisisparamisia @this-is-audism and all the others that are out there.

Seizures can occur for many different reasons and this account does not discriminate on the reasoning

I’ll be adding links to my educational posts here as they are created.

What is a seizure

Seizure triggers

Seizure Diagnosis

[crispwormsoda]

A lot of the time people will say like "oh I'd never make fun of a disabled person" but then they do and they don't even realize that that's what they're doing. Like

People will say they wouldn't make fun of a schizophrenic or psychotic person but then make "jokes" about people being insane and delusional.

People will say they wouldn't make fun of epileptic people but then get mad about having to add flash warnings.

People will say they wouldn't make fun of an autistic person but then berate people for missing social cues.

People will say they wouldn't make fun of visually impaired people but then call people lazy for not reading things themself or making spelling mistakes.

People will say they wouldn't make fun of an intellectually disabled person but then mock people who can't do "basic" things.

I think it in part comes from the belief that the people you know couldn't possibly be disabled, that if you met a disabled person you'd be able to tell immediately. And, no. That's not how it works. If you want to be an ally to disabled people, you don't make fun of the things we do. Even if you're not making fun of someone who's disabled, you're telling the other disabled people you know that you're not safe for us to be around.

[nightmaretour]

I keep seeing people put accommodations for people with epilepsy on the same level as sensory accommodations for autism and like... no??? Obviously both are important but epilepsy can kill people, SUDEP is a thing. If you expose someone with photosensitive epilepsy to strobing lights they could suffer permanent brain damage or die. Epilepsy is a condition with physical, sometimes deadly consequences. I'm not sure how many different ways I need to say this before it sticks, but epileptic seizures are physical neurological phenomena that can cause lasting neurological damage or death. Epilepsy can kill you. You can die from epilepsy.

[frogsfordisabilityjustice]

No, your event is not a 'safe space' for queer kids if disabled queer kids cannot access or attend it safely.

[purple--starrrs]

By the way it's like. Really fucked how society's thoughts on epilepsy is just "get over it." Seizures can cause permanent brain damage. Seizures can kill people. Seizures hurt like hell. Allow me to reiterate that seizures can kill people. And you're just gonna casually put flashing lights, a common trigger for seizures in your advertisement, in your animation meme, in your edit, on your billboards, without even thinking about putting a simple disclaimer? That's unbelievable. Your little anime edit could deadass cost a life and you're not gonna put a warning because it's "inconvenient" or "people like that shouldn't be on the internet" (ableist) (the problem exists outside the internet also). Or you'll give insufficient ones like putting it in the captions or only giving like one second before the flashing lights appear, meaning that the trigger's already in motion before anyone who needs the warning can read it and save themselves from literal physical danger.

We need to start commenting under other people's posts about how to properly warn for flashing lights and eyestrain. We need to be emailing and calling companies about their possibly triggering advertisements that could induce seizures. We need to stop tolerating ableism and start speaking up for the more vulnerable.

Also, stop putting epilepsy warnings. That's like saying "warning: schizophrenia" on a post including unreality or "warning: dyslexia" on a post with a typing quirk. First off, the disability mentioned isn't the only group of people that this could trigger. Second, it doesn't truly get the message across and instead makes it worse for those with the disability-- scrolling through the epilepsy tag on Tumblr should get you to view the content of other epileptic people, but no, you just get a bunch of flashing lights and eyestrain, even though you could instead tag for, oh I dunno, flashing lights and eyestrain.

Anyways this Disability Pride, and for every month that comes after, think about epileptic people and others who are triggered by flashing lights/eyestrain. Happy pride to those who experience seizures too frequently due to the unaccommodating and ableist societies we live in!