seizure-safety-blog

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Hey Tumblr, if I select "never auto-play" for GIFs and videos, this also goes for banners. And this also goes for previews.

GIFs in the preview/background when you open a tag shouldn't auto-play. Your banners we see when we open the app shouldn't auto-play.

It's overstimulating for me and it's extremely unsafe for epileptics, people with migraines, and other photosensitive people. Everything that moves can be a trigger, not only flashing lights.

This isn't a "Please, that would be very nice", this is a "You could be responsible for an epileptic not being able to drive for 6 months because of one (1) small absence seizure".

It has real consequences, and you constantly forget photosensitive people, to say the least.

Photosensitive people can avoid unsafe apps if they know they're unsafe. But you provide the option to disable auto-play. You make people think that it's safe for them to use your app. They let their guard down. They think it's fine.

Only for you to make it unsafe again all of a sudden. That's a real asshole move tbh.

@staff

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Listen, I know people are excited that Everything Everywhere All At Once has a lot of Oscar nominations, but please try to remember that the idea of it winning Best Picture (which I admit is likely) has legitimately scary implications for a lot of photosensitive people. If it wins, it’s very likely that the message Hollywood is going to take away from it is not “we should improve our writing, people like well written movies” but rather “people like flashy visual effects and we can get away with including a boatload of them. Guess we’ll include them in every film now.”

We pretty much saw this happen with Spiderverse already. And I know there’s not really anything anyone on tumblr can do to affect the outcome of the vote but I just want people to keep this in mind when posting about the Oscars. And when posting about movies in general. We need to acknowledge that movies being inaccessible is a major flaw, and start being more vocal about it not being acceptable.

(Also, the same fears apply to if Avatar 2 wins best picture but based on public opinion I find that less likely).

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Heads up but if you see the top of this ad there’s flashing lights in it

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An argument that regularly occurs within the discussion of accessibility in cinema, is that creators should not have limitations put upon them. If their creative vision requires Strobe effects to be used, then they should be used regardless of any adverse effects they may have on the viewer. 

Others before me have spoken about how the health and wellbeing of your audience should be more important than any artistic vision. However, I think something that is never noted is that creatives are already placed with strict limitations in the form of age certificate guidelines, and other broadcasting standards. 

Now, fair warning. I am going to use a lot of uncensored profanity here. If you are offended by slang terms that refer to the act of sex, genitalia, a person’s moral/social standing, or any form of bodily fluid then you may wish to step away. 

“Cunt. Cunt cunt cunt cunt. Cuntity-cunt-cunt! I’ll say it again you shit faced bastards! What is up with all these mother fucking cunts, on this mother fucking cunt ass plane?” is a phrase that beloved merc-with-a-mouth Deadpool is not allowed to say. The rating of the series doesn’t matter. The nature of the character doesn’t matter. The fact that, objectively, nothing of true offence to any individual beyond the realm of fiction has been said; doesn’t matter. The words used are deemed as offensive by the society in which we live in, and so the producers and editors have decided to place limitations on the writers. 

British Swear-tastic Political Comedy “The Thick of It” famously had to carefully count the number of cunts and fucks in order to meet with “broadcasting standards”. This limited their actors ability to improvise more effectively, and led to scenes being forced to be cut or heavily edited in post production. Yet nobody ever questions whether the limit on swearing was unreasonable even though it was fundamentally detrimental to their creative process. 

These may seem like some extreme examples, but one must remember that this applies to all cinematic media. It does not matter that a depressed, middle aged Peter Parker would be perfectly at home letting our a quite “Ahhhh fuck.” when he drops his pizza on the floor, because Spider-Man films need to be rated PG-13 in order to maintain sales. This policing of language does limit the ways in which a character is allowed to express themselves, and the sort of stories that are therefore allowed to be told. However the majority of fans deem it perfectly reasonable and acceptable. It does not cause outrage in the same way that suggesting a PG-13 film does not contain Strobe effects heavy enough to send someone to hospital. It would appear that society has deemed the word “Fuck” worse than a Seizure. Peter Parker cannot say fuck in order to protect viewers, he can, however, bombard them with deadly strobes. 

And why is this? What is it about our society where we have deemed it more traumatising for a 14 year old to hear the word “cunt” than it is for them to have (or even witness) a seizure? I can assure you, from personal experience, that seizures have caused far more long term damage to my brain than the word “cunt” ever has. 

Cinematic Limitations are not just put down to language though. Blood shed is also something that is carefully monitored during ratings. If one watches the extended edition of “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” one will note significantly more blood shed during the extended sequences! A level that is far more realistic than what was shown in the original. This is because the cinematic release needed to be a 12a, whereas the Extended BluRay was allowed to be a 15. The creators had to work around creative limitations that were put in place to protect their viewers’ sensibilities. 

Of course standards for these things differ across nations. Other recent examples of this include films such as “Demon Slayer: Mugan Train”. Demon Slayer is a Japanese animated film based off of a comic aimed at young boys, and as such was given a PG12 rating in its home nation. However, in the UK it was rated as 15 due to “Strong Violence” including “strangling, slashings and stabbings with bladed weapons, dismemberment and decapitations which result in extensive blood spurts and other forms of bloodshed.” The US release was given an R Rating for similar reasons, although it is perhaps important to note that whilst in the UK the film was not allowed to be seen by anyone under the age of 15, in the US a child could still go see the film so long as they had adult supervision. 

Yet it is also interesting to note that whilst Japanese Society considers fantasy levels of blood shed to not be a problem for their children to watch, they do have some of the strictest photosensitivity laws for broadcast TV. This is as a direct response to the infamous “Pokémon Incident” where 685 children from across Japan were taken to hospital after suffering from seizures following an episode of the Pokémon anime in 1997. “Electric Soldier Porygon” has hence been banned from ever being broadcast again, and the titular Porygon has never been seen in the anime since. Even though the trigger for the seizures was Pikachu’s attacks, not Porygon’s. #PorygonWasInnocent. 

Most fans consider this a reasonable response to children being put in danger by a TV Show! Indeed, when people watch the episode on YouTube (some things simply refuse to stay lost) folks tend to agree that the lighting effects were incredibly severe and TV Tokyo were right to ban the episode. Yet in 2018 (over a decade after Electric Soldier Porygon Aired) when Pixar also caused children to have seizures in the cinema during “The Incredibles 2” the film was not pulled from screenings or revised, and anyone who suggested it should be was met with volatile abuse from so-called-fans claiming that if their creative vision involved strobe effects, then those strobe effects should be allowed to stay in, no matter how many children might be hurt in the process! 

Interesting to note, too, is that the version of the film that aired in the USA was in actual fact illegal to broadcast in the UK due to the potentially deadly nature of the strobe effects, and so an altered version had to be shown. This version still came with an official warning (as is legally required in the UK) but was at least deemed not as likely to cause seizures in those who do not usually suffer from photosensitive seizures. What this tells us, is that Pixar had a version of the film that they could have easily re-distributed to theatres but chose not to. 

Pixar easily accepted limitations on their films in terms of language and violence in order to protect the moral/mental well-being of their audience, but drew the line at anything that would actually protect their physical well-being. 

You may find yourself reading this and agreeing with the certificate ratings. You may think that the words such as “shit”, “fuck”, and “cunt” shouldn’t be used in media aimed at under 15s. That an excessive or realistic depiction of blood and violence has no place in superhero films that are naturally going to appeal to children! And yet, in my experience, the same people who have these views do not expand them to the use of strobes. Any time the mention of films such as “Into The Spider-verse” should not include strobe effects, a plethora of people will rise up to tell you that you are wrong and terrible and bad for daring to suggest such limitations be put upon cinema! Yet as demonstrated above, these films must already undergo limitations in order to be shown to mass audiences. If the creators wanted total creative freedom, they would keep themselves to small indie productions supported by Kickstarter. Yet when a film is made for a mass market, then it must accept those mass market limitations, especially if they wish for their film to be watched by a younger audience. 

Because, at the end of the day, whilst I may be forced to hear again and again that not all animation is for children, a coming of age movie about a teenager attending a brand new high school is, fundamentally, going to be aimed at people under the age of 18. A.K.A. Children. It is also important to note, that the age in which a person is most likely to experience their first seizure is between the ages of 13 and 18, the exact age range that these films are deemed safe for in terms of emotional and mental wellbeing. 

Now, I am no parent, but if given the choice between my child hearing Peter Parker call Green Goblin a “Little Shit”, or having to hold my child’s limp hand as I desperately prayed for them to wake up after suffering from a seizure, I know which I would rather. 

I’m not calling for a complete rehaul of cinema certification here. I’m not advocating for more swearing, or more bloodshed. I simply believe that if certificate ratings exist to provide guidance to parents and the rest of the general public about what to expect from films, and what society decides is and is not safe for children to consume, then their physical as well as mental health should be taken into consideration. 

And if you are reading this, and still find that a production company including the word “cunt” in their film is more offensive than that film causing someone to have a Seizure, then I have terrible news for you. I think you might be just a tad bit ableist. And that maybe, you, and vast portions of the western film industry, need to start addressing that problem. Before it becomes too late, and the voices of photosensitive people are lost to cinema forever. 

For, at the end of the day, if we cannot go see these films, how can we be inspired by them?

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Recently I made a post discussing how media companies value the emotional and moral well-being of their audience more than their physical well-being. It spoke of how there are many limitations put upon directors and writers with regards to language and violence, yet are given free reign when it comes to the use of strobes. It made the point that whilst violence and profanity may be offensive and shocking for an audience, it does not compare to the fact that flashing lights can cause death in photosensitive people. 

Naturally, when discussing this I had to use swear words! It felt ridiculous to talk about how we find slang terms for the vagina more offensive than potential child death without actually using said slang terms. 

In the hopes that this post would reach out beyond Epilepsy Tumblr, I paid to have it blazed. 

My post was denied with no explanation given to why. 

Not only was it denied, but due to my bank’s conversion fees and a change in exchange rate I did not even get all my money back from Tumblr! When I asked for an explanation @staff failed to respond. (You can help me recoup my losses through Ko-Fi FYI) 

As angry as I am, I do find it absolutely hilarious that Tumblr are directly proving my point that they care more about moral and emotional well-being than physical well-being! They claim that they do not allow posts that can trigger seizure and migraines yet every week it seems there’s a new banner advert responsible for triggering responses in users! 

That is not counting the number of gif sets containing flashing images that have been Blazed. There is no, for example, blanket ban on GIFs from Into the Spider-verse, or Everything Everywhere All At Once, or Avatar: The Way of Water. There is, however, apparently a strict ban on the use of the word “cunt”. A ban that is not actually listed anywhere on their terms of service. A word that has different social connotations depending on where you go in the world! Using it in Australia, for example, would have a different impact to using it in America. But I suppose Tumblr are too busy caring about the use of inappropriate language to look up the details on Grice’s Maxims. (A joke for the linguists out there) 

It’s getting frustrating. It’s getting tiresome. We should not have to choose between being involved in society, and getting to stay alive and well. The response to the ongoing pandemic has proved that able-bodied people prefer their own comfort over the needs of disabled people, and the use of strobes in Tumblr Approved posts goes to show that too. 

Time and time again, the health and wellbeing of disabled people is pushed aside. We are not allowed to speak. We are not allowed to be angry. Whenever we express these emotions, we are barred from existence, pushed aside to make the world a more comfortable place for able-bodied people. Even amongst friends, I can tell that my anger at the world makes them uncomfortable in themselves. Well, sometimes it’s good to feel uncomfortable! Feeling uncomfortable at the words of a minority lets you know that there’s something that needs to change! 

So come on Tumblr. Pay attention. Listen to your disabled userbase! If you are going to silence us, at least stick to just the words we use, and not just put us six feet in the ground. And surely, at the end of the day, you’d be much happier paying me back my Blaze Money than being forced to pay for my funeral?

Note: This post is about Photosensitivity and the wellbeing of Disabled People. People with any form of photosensitivity or conditions that are related to photosensitivity are welcome to add on! But I would appreciate if discussions of Tumblr allowing unacceptable racist, transphobic and antisemitic abuse to be left to other posts. This post is explicitly about how Tumblr are knowingly endangering the lives of their user base. 

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Why does the Super Bowl halftime show always have so many flashing lights with absolutely no warning?! You would think that at the very least for the most watched event of the year in the US that they would attempt to take some level of safety precautions. But nope. They always wind up with enough flashing lights to trigger seizures in potential viewers with absolutely zero warnings whatsoever.

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heads up for anyone with photosensitivity issues, I just got this siriusxm ad about some niki minaj thing that had a shit ton of flashing lights right at the beginning

idfk why they didn’t consider that or why you can’t block the ad, but I thought people should at least know

#epilepsy #actually epileptic #epilepsy awareness

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fucking hate the "well it's not technically marriage inequality that disabled people can't get married without losing their benefits because no one's stopping you from getting married" yeah something is stopping us from getting married. Loss of medical care. Homelessness. Hunger. Death. I don't know how to tell you this but SSI is not a thing that you get because you could technically get a job but you don't feel like it. The process is awful, it's dehumanizing and it can take years even if you're clearly disabled. If you can work you do work, and if you can't work you can't afford to lose your "benefits". It's eugenics plain and simple, it came from a time where you could only fuck if you were married and they wanted to de-incentivize disabled people from fucking so we would stop existing.

[seizure-safety-blog]

Memory loss babes, I'll remind you I love you any time you need me to✨

(And I'll remind you to drink your water and take your meds, too.)

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hey reminder to not touch people or move people who are seizing unless you are supporting their head or body to keep them from falling/putting something under their head to prevent injury.

touching or moving seizing people can result in injury and worse seizure activity, or cause more seizures after the one they are currently having.

i had a seizure at my highschool today that lasted 10 minutes give or take. it was very bad. the nurses there, after sending away my friends, kept jostling me around, resulting in a worse seizure to the point my leg and jaw would not stop shaking even after the seizure ‘finished.’ one nurse kept roughly rubbing my sternum and shoulder, and she also moved me to my side and kept moving my legs and arms around into different side resting positions, and at one point threw my hand and it hit me in the face. another nurse had taken my head and put it in her lap, which was weird to me and made me uncomfortable since i am hyperaware of my body during seizures since i am conscious. she also kept saying my deadname over and over again trying to get a response out of me while.. i was seizing… hm. anyways.

those are all things you should not do. let me tell you what my friends did.

one of my friends timed the seizure like i had asked him to before it started, and he stood there watching and timing it. my other friends didnt touch me and they moved around me when the bell rang to go to classes (this was early in the morning, which was an hour ago for me, and it was in the cafeteria). the other friend who stayed hung around and tried to give good information to the nurses who ended up being called over by an assistant principle who came over. they did the right thing. the nurses did not.

my seizure could have been only a couple of minutes, maybe just 6 minutes (5+ minutes being Bad ofc), but no! what those nurses did made it 100x worse, and now i am suffering because of it.

gotta love medical professionals who dont know shit!

#epilepsy awareness #actually epileptic #epilepsy

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Hey @staff, it's cruel and fucked up to have ads with flashing lights when people have urgent medical reasons to avoid that

#epilepsy #actually epileptic #epilepsy awareness

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very useful chrome extension! currently only available on chrome and chrome-based browsers but iirc the devs are working on porting it to browsers like firefox, and also trying to get it to work on other sites!

There is a new Chrome extension that detects if a video you’re streaming has a strobe in it, will freeze the video and stick this warning up there until you approve it.

WHERE THE HELL HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE????

#actually epileptic #epilepsy awareness #epilepsy

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Idk if this was a a glitch on my app, but wanted people to know that the “Aqua glitter” filter on Instagram is currently having a rapid strobing effect (black/white). This is likely not safe for your photosensitive friends with epilepsy; please do NOT use it

#epilepsy #epilepsy awareness #actually epileptic

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Listen to me. Listen to me. Listen to me. Listen to me.

I know there is a lot of discourse (tm) around this right now but listen to me

sometimes you do just have to lie to children.

#not epilepsy related #just really fucking funny

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the internet really needs to fucking stop with trying guilt trip people into caring about whatever today's fucked up news headline is

"if you don't like and reblog this then you are evil and don't care about x group of marginalized people" girl what the fuck. someone not reblogging your tumblr post says absolutely nothing about their moral character

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Long time queer tumblr user new to the blog lol and love the content so far. I also agree w/ all of your dni's but i was just curious about "narc abuse isn't real". Like why is it not real, could you explain?

hi hi! so, 'narc abuse' is a term that describes abuse that comes from narcissistic people. the thing is, NPD doesn't make someone an abuser. the whole idea that specific disorders make someone destined to be an abuser is very ableist. there are certain symptoms and experiences of having NPD that can lead to abusive behavior if left unchecked, but that can be said for depression, anxiety, and literally any other mental disorder.

for example, my mother has severe seasonal depression. whenever she gets depressed, she becomes abusive. she screams at me for every little mistake, puts me down, makes guilt-trippy comments about me and my life, and just generally lashes out. but that doesn't mean that having depression makes you inherently abusive, it means that my mother hasn't done a good enough job of learning how to cope and how to behave when she IS depressed. i do not hold her abuse against other people with depression or call it "depression abuse" because it's simply unfair to make the statement that a mental disorder turns you into an abuser.

so believing in "narcissistic abuse" means you're believing that a mental disorder defines someone, that they're a bad, abusive person because of something they can't control. basically what it boils down to is that disorders are not a choice, but abuse is, so using a term that conflates the two is very ableist and hurtful to people with NPD (like me) who are good people and don't abuse others.

i hope this helps, sorry if it's confusing asdfasf

#tw ableism #ableism discussion #npd safe

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honestly such a shit genre of "joke". idk who came up with "seizures are funny, actually" but I'm sick of it being a thing

Anyone else tired of seizures being normalized as a “joke?”

In Wednesday, she has one of her visions and sees Goody Addams. Her friend said she looked like she was having a seizure; Wednesday replied if only I was that lucky.

Also, in the beginning the coffee machine is malfunctioning. The reaction is “my machine is having a seizure”

We had a few good years where people stopped mocking disabilities, now ableism is being normalized again.

#actually epileptic #epilepsy awareness #epilepsy #ableism