Re: Certain redirects in WCAG guidelines can trigger migraines, probably seizures

Hi Marja,

Thanks for bringing this issue to our attention. I apologize for the 
discomfort or harm the unintentional redirects have caused you.

For quite some time we had a user setting that allowed to switch off 
animated scrolling. Yet, users like yourself were caught off guard when 
visiting the page for the first time, which made that setting pointless. 
So we removed scroll animations altogether.

This change should also address the other issues you describe, including 
flashing when the page loads.

I hope the Quick Reference page now works better for you.

Let us know if we can improve other aspects. Your feedback makes our 
pages better.

Best,
👋 Eric

> Hi,
>
> I have a low-frequency strobe sensitivity and a visual motion 
> sensitivity. I often get severe migraines, partial blindness, and 
> nausea when using the web and was trying to check on your 
> accessibility standards to see if they permit some of the elements. 
> Checking the instructions here:
>
> https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#general-thresholddef
>
> Clicking on "How to meet 2.2.2"
>
> I was pain-directed to here:
>
> https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/quickref/?versions=2.0#qr-time-limits-pause
>
> A number of problems, from most severe to least:
>
> 1. The page quickly flashed as it animated scrolling to that 
> guideline. I can't count flashes per second, so it's more than 3, 
> probably more than 10. So it is likely to be a seizure trigger.
>
> 2. The page animated scrolling to that guideline. For me, animated 
> scrolling is a major migraine trigger.
>
> 3. The left sidebar and the top bar do not scroll with the rest of the 
> page. For me, the sheer effect from such broken scrolling is a minor 
> but more frequent migraine trigger.
>
> If your standards permit this, they need revision.
>
> Marja Erwin



--

Eric Eggert
Web Accessibility Specialist
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) at World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Received on Thursday, 20 June 2019 06:15:51 UTC