#epileptic media

[dominikmorishitaleitner]

poster for INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING XVI and concerts by DAZED PILOTS, PALOMA 004, LERNPLANET dj GUNSHIP COLLIDER SA 29JUNI 2024 at KAPU, Linz

[justepilepsy]

The reason I am harping in on spiderverse so much is because it is otherwise a really good film and story and premise.

People are not wrong for enjoying it. I don't want people to stop enjoying it. But I want them to acknowledge that it's not normal for many even non neurodiverse people to leave the cinema with a headache. You don't need epilepsy to have a photosensitive seizure.

There is a lot of great art and great ideas in this movie beyond the rapid Glitch effects, highly contrasting bright colors on large screen areas, pulsing lights and patterns etc

The film goes on to inspire other main stream and indie animation projects to take after its visuals

But if a large part of those inspiring visuals is inaccessible then I am just worried this inaccessibility will invade media that has otherwise been safe for me or others to consume.

Spiderverse is a trend setting piece of art but the execution and apparently exploitative work environment has lead to the film being a real safety hazard.

Looking at the discourse and responses I keep seeing to the photosensitivity posts surrounding it, I worry that more than just the viewers , but also many great artists may think the bright flashing dangerous lights and colors are the reason the art is good, rather than creative scene transitions or fantastic character design and the excellent blending of various frame rates.

And if strobe lights and all these effects are realy what gets you hyped and pumped for any type of art. Then that is okay too. I suppose there is an audience for everything.

But it would still be nice if there was a safe viewing option for people to whom these things are genuinely dangerous.

I want to be wrong about strobes and the dangerous art direction decisions of spiderverse spreading. But I have not yet reason to think otherwise.

[mycological-mariner]

One thing I find deeply frustrating is whenever you go “This piece of medía looks really good and like something I would enjoy however when I tried to get into it, I found it contains a great deal of things that I find extremely triggering which sucks because it otherwise sounds like something I’d really enjoy” and someone goes “Oh that sucks, I’m sorry you’re missing out it is REALLY GOOD and you WOULD love it!”

[xemnote]

Tumblr be like:

"check out these tags :3 here's #Epilepsy" and It's a gif or video with strobes playing against my will.

[silver-stargazing]

Gosh, I don’t know why The Idiot has been on my brain recently but it’s been almost 3 years since I read that book and I am still in awe that Dostoyevsky really went to unexpected places when talking about epilepsy.

He very directly talks about how, for some folks with epilepsy, they experience what is essentially a high before a seizure. Like a brief moment where you experience an on-rush of ecstasy that feels like the single greatest moment in your entire life before slipping off into the void.

Speaking as someone who regularly had that experience, it’s really difficult to talk to others about it because seizures are obviously bad for you. It’s weird to talk about anything other than negative experiences with seizures and yet I still have to make sense of these strange positive experiences that are often the only moments I can actually remember from the seizure.

IDK what I’m rambling to but it feels like there are still some taboo subjects when talking about epilepsy and it’s wild to me that someone from the 1860s just approached a lot of these subjects head-on and, for the most part, addressed them in a way that’s still approachable to modern readers. 

[mabelsguidetolife]

need more characters with epilepsy where their disability is not their Only Trait so you’re not just meant to pity them

[disastrousbi]

I think it was one of my mutuals who reblogged it, but does anyone have that one post about photosensitivity not being taken seriously by social media creators/somewhat users but the post focused more on how its handled by the platforms? I really need it for a class oops

[chaotic-aro-incarnate]

What do you mean that a semi obscure Japanese movie from 1951 based on a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky doesn't have any fanfics on AO3????

[feartheoldblog]

dead space remake what was the need for the flashing lights 🤨

[gh0ulpunk]

Brain damage makes you neurodivergent. Tourette's makes you neurodivergent. Epilepsy makes you neurodivergent.

i think when some of you say "neurodivergent" you just mean adhd and autism

[naniyou]

I watched the live with the CEO, here is the tl;dr

The good news:

Chronological dash is here to stay! Whether you have to toggle it weekly or new users default to “For you” was not elaborated on but at least that’s confirmed.

Custom themes are here to stay! Once again, may be buried for all I know but, for sure will remain an option.

Search updates are in the works!!!!

The neutral news:

Tumblr is seriously in the red financially and needs more support, Ad-free for example is not widely used

They would not comment on the suggestion to bring back NSFW behind a paywall (which we all know would get them a boatload of money)

They’re possibly going to add a donation system like Ao3 and Wikipedia.

They would “rather not” sell data to make up the costs

Most of staff are pre-2010 tumblr users including the CEO who joined in 2007, so they do actually use the site and have for a long time

The bad news:

Condensed reblogs/removing duplicate reblogs is going forward. The reason cited was to meet “certain expectations” of users coming from other social media, which isn’t good.

Disability features (specifically turning off flashing ads for epileptics) was met with a request to purchase Ad-free @zingring clarified that they are looking into it but suggested Ad-free as more of a stopgap until something is put in place

Overall it was more chill than I expected, @photomatt and @zingring seem to be far more in tune with the userbase than u/spez.

[ellecdc]

⚡️ - angst, ☀️ - fluff, ⛅️ - hurt/comfort, 🌶️ - smut/spicy, 🌈 - crack [comedy] 🫧 = elle’s favourites

The Winner Takes it All (you don't need to compete for the boys) ☀️ ->The Loser Has To Fall (companion piece) ☀️ Swim Lessons (meet cute with swim instructor marauders) 🌈 When One Door Closes (the boys support you as you end your toxic relationship)⛅️ Sweet Tooth (you love baking for the boys, and they love you) ☀️ Overthinking (you're convinced they're mad at you) ⛅️🫧 Our little gremlin (fem!readers sense of humour) 🌈 Sirius' Arch Nemesis (fem!reader finds a kitten) 🌈🫧 The Sound of Music (muggle born gn!reader x poly!marauders) ☀️ Two Steps Forward (fem!reader struggling with mental health, hurt/comfort) ⛅️🫧 Marauders + your younger sibling headcanons It's been you? (when they find out their gf is a secret animagus) ⛅️🫧 who are you talking to? (they find out their date talks to her cat) 🌈 we've got you (the boys help gn!reader through an epileptic seizure) ⛅️🫧 we don't need to celebrate (marauders x roommate!reader who cleaned her room)☀️ quit (reader gets upset when James is injured during a match) ⚡️⛅️🫧 "she's fine" "she's crying" (the boys are called to pick up sad drunk!reader) ⛅️ popping wheelies (marauders x wheelchair user!reader blurb) ☀️ Scout's Honour (the boys find fem!reader sleeping with her stuffie)☀️ post-war panic (x fem!reader hurt/comfort) ⛅️ what it feels like to win (sirius takes autistic!reader to get her nails done)☀️ why sirius is banned from shopping for reader 🌈 World Cup Woes (james & sirius love fussing over moony + reader with POTS)☀️ it's a tie (moonchaser vs Sirius x reader prank war ends in a +pregnancy test) ⛅️ -> of showers and babies (pregnancy fic) ☀️🫧 your boyfriend's a trollop (everyone dresses up as Sirius) 🎃🌈 that scallywag (the boys pout when reader matches Barty for halloween)🎃 social media manager (NHL marauders have a crush on slytherin staff!reader)🌈 post moon peace (the boys and werewolf!reader recover from a full)☀️ the plight of Padfoot (the pack meets another werewolf) ⛅️🌈🫧 papa padfoots sacrifice (mum!reader saves their child from dad!marauders)🌈🫧 the team's baby (medic!reader interrupts practice so they can feel baby kick) ☀️ ABBA isn't music (dad!marauders x reader don't agree on music for their baby)🌈 cuddling isn't cute (reader, rem, & James <3 cuddling much to Sirius' chagrin)🌈 James' love & the adventures of padvix (fem!reader + the boys at an airBNB)❄️

page two [seer!reader, whimsical!reader, feisty!reader, + Lily, zombie au]

[justepilepsy]

Because of current frustration

Happy fuck spiderverse year.

The art direction is in part ableist.

You can enjoy the movie and still say that.

Note: it's ableist because it's using common animation and color choices KNOWN to cause seizures (and death) in audiences. This includes people who don't have epilepsy.

I will never not be bitter about this because the first movie message was about "anyone can wear the mask" when it clearly was excluding people by simply making it impossible to watch this film in a safe manner.

If you got a headache after watching that film. That's a photosensitive reaction and it means you're not immune to these effects. A movie you love should not give you a headache or dizziness or disorientation. It should not give an above average amount of people seizures.

And those effects causing these symptoms should not be hailed as the reason the film is good.

Spiderverse utilises other aspects of comic art to already stick out.

Rapid Glitch effects, large bright high contrast red and blue areas covering the screen, prolonged moving patterns, and flashing lights are not what make this film look good.

[justepilepsy]

So uh. Normally I wouldn't reblog that here but it won't show up in the tags and I changed them like 20 times... I'll try again tomorrow.

Anyways I'm actually trying a sort of media analysis /interpretation video essay thing. It'll probably take me 2 to 3 weeks more at this pace to finish it but yknow. I really like this section.

I'm using audio snippets from the media I'm discussing to emphasise that the way the "wild magic" is treated in the podcast is oddly similar and accurate to the experiences and conversations you have as a person with seizures.

Also the way Fitzroy feels about his magic is pretty much spot on transferable to seizures to me. So uh.

Also I would like to know if other people with seizures/epilepsy/invisible disability can relate to things said in the video!

Or am I just here with a pinboard and red string? Maybe both.

WIP

I started writing video essay / opinion piece by accident on how Fitzroy's character (from The Adventure Zone Graduation) setup + Wild Magic (in DnD5e) offer fantastic [possibly unintended] Epilepsy representation.

I am not going too deep into the Wild Magic Game mechanics, I think I could make it into four hours if I wanted to stretch it. But this is more going to be like.. an opinion piece and why I think it is fantastic rep of invisible conditions like epilepsy.

It will probably take me like another 2 weeks until the entire thing is done, but I really like this audio-snippet section. The purple text in brackets is basically altered text to the original audio.

It's meant to show how similar this dialog is to what talking to your therapist/neurologist/person you trust can be like.

This is either going to be the most cringe video I ever made, including all my silly live action videos I made when i was like 15-17 - or actually a solid first essay-esque video.

[ms-demeanor]

Not to be rude or derailing your answer to the ask about the scorched earth post, but I do think quite genuinely that the site is becoming more openly hostile to its userbase, or at the very least its disabled userbase. While I’m not a fan of mobbing people’s personal blogs in targeted harassment campaigns, I think some people are also ignoring that staff blatantly said in a recent post that epileptic users would need to pay for ad-free to have their safety assured

I kind of don’t think that’s being ethical or user friendly, to me that sounds like they’re refusing to meet basic accessibility requests and answering with ‘pay us money to be safe’. Strobing and flashing ads aren’t just eyestraining, they can legitimately lead to serious injuries for epileptic folk, and telling people with epilepsy to just pay up or get lost is kinda… I dunno… disgusting?

So it looks like in a livestream (not on a post so far as I've been able to see) either photomatt or zingring made a glib and inappropriate response to an epileptic user asking about flashing ads and suggested that maybe they needed to pay for ad-free.

That's bad, I don't like it, and if it was supposed to be a joke it was a shitty one.

Zingring, tumblr's COO addressed that comment in a post where she said:

Buying ad-free (or gifting ad-free to someone else) is always an option, but that is not the solution (and of course, some folks simply can’t afford it). Sorry that it sounded dismissive in the session! That was not my intent.

I still think that's inappropriate (it's not that ad free isn't *the* solution, ad free shouldn't be *a* solution to accessibility), but it looks like Zingring has addressed this issue multiple times.

She got tagged in this post listing ways that tumblr could improve accessibility for photosensitive users and seems to have pretty consistently followed up; she has explained that there are rules against flashing ads that are sometimes violated by the advertisers and asks people to please report ads that break those rules so those advertisers can be blocked, has noted that there is apparently a "stop all autoplay" option in the works behind the scenes. She does also seem to take it seriously when users reach out with complaints about accessibility issues and seems to be willing to explore options.

Looking through that blog, this does not seem to be a site that is hostile to users with accessibility issues so much as, like everything else that's wrong around here, it is ridiculously understaffed so every project that someone wants to have as a priority is a project that someone else needs put on the backburner.

However, to very gently push back: how much of what you're experiencing as hostility from tumblr is actual hostility and how much of it is seeing posts like this, which suggests that tumblr is removing accessibility features because the lightbox didn't have double-tap-to-zoom on mobile for some users for a short while, claims that the blocking/flagging issue is a false flag against trans women, shared the inaccurate fearmongering post about tumblr live's ToS, and also claimed that tumblr "allowed" flashing ads that violated the in-place rules that tumblr has for advertising?

(this kind of goes with the 'nobody understands the ToS' but also nobody understands ads; tumblr does not have enough staff to look over the ads that go on their site every day, no social media company does, they rely on advertiser agreements as a sort of enhanced honor system and reports from users if the advertisers don't hold up their end of the bargain; the only way around this for any site that uses ads is to not have ads and that post is explicitly saying don't pay for tumblr because they are doing ads wrong - either they have to run ads and some bad ones are going to slip through and users will have to report them or tumblr will have to be 100% paid by the users or tumblr will go away. If you see ads that are unsafe for photosensitive users on *any* website you should report them to the site because the site almost certainly doesn't know that there's an advertiser violating the ad ToS unless someone tells them)

Generally speaking, I am actually *not* seeing worsening accessibility features, I'm seeing improvements compared to where we were five years ago - alt text on images is now built-in and devs are working hard on making tumblr more compatible with screen readers (as noted in the changes blog regularly); tumblr itself started offering different dashboard themes for users after years of complaints about contrast levels and readability; the "tiktok/twitterified" desktop dash view that everyone hates is supposed to be more readable on wider screens.

Compare this post in October of 2022 when Changes celebrated adding animations for posting (and told users those could only be disabled at an OS or browser level) with this post from July 2023 when they rolled back a feature because of an unexpected use case that could cause problems for photosensitive users.

These aren't things that I'd expect to see from a company that didn't care about accessibility, or that was openly hostile to questions around making the site more accessible.

I don't disagree with you that the comment from the stream about buying ad free was inappropriate; it absolutely was and it must have made photosensitive users feel like shit. But in the three months since that comment tumblr has been very responsive about getting flashing ads removed as soon as possible and seems to be working on more permanent fixes. I think this may be an instance of able-bodied people not realizing how shitty and dehumanizing their joke was (and it was) and taking the steps to do better.

If you don't think they're doing better, I probably can't convince you. I certainly don't think that tumblr is perfect about accessibility and I think that users need to continue pushing for improved user control of how the site displays and interacts with various devices. But compared to the kind of responses users complaints got from staff in 2018? I feel like things have improved a lot.

[morganbritton132]

This is so silly, but I watch Sesame Street with my kids these days and thought about Eddie being one of the first artists adapting his lyrics to be numbers and colors!

The first thing to pop into my head after reading this prompt is Eddie, age 25, sitting on a stoop next to Oscar the Grouch and I love it.

The second thing to pop into my head is Corroded Coffin, in all their heavy metal glory, playing a rock n roll version of the rubber ducky song on toy instruments. Gareth uses Oscar’s trashcan as a drum and at the end of the song, he comes out of the trashcan like, “Hey, someone’s livin’ here.”

I think Eddie would absolutely jump at the opportunity to be on the show because (1) he was a Sesame Street kid and understands it’s importance, (2) thinks it’d be hilarious and piss off a lot of conservatives (his favorite hobby), (3) Steve is a second-grade teacher and he shows this show to his kids on rainy days, and (4) he fucking loves Big Bird.

As predicted, the episode gets quite a bit of backlash even though the whole theme of it was about not judging people based on what they look like and that there is good in everybody. There were even a few years where PBS took the episode out of rotation after receiving so many complaints.

When asked about it in an interview, Eddie says, “Hey, before we were devil-worshiping Satanists, we worshipped the bird.”

Many years later when Eddie is thrust back into the spotlight by being a dork on a social media app, he’s asked to go back onto the show. They do an episode about epilepsy and Eddie causes a whole different controversy by mentioning that his husband from his same-sex marriage is epileptic.