[Suggestion] A new category for rapidly flashing things to help people with epilepsy

[bbb651]

The title says it all. It's a bit different than the rest of the categories but it can be very helpful for a lot of people.

[elypter]

that sounds more than useful enough on its own but it also helps to legitimize the addon and discourages platforms to disallow it.

[nfd9001]

This may be extremely useful for anyone who is photosensitive might want to put on a video in a language they can't read well/fully understand (e.g. language learners, people listening to foreign music, ...). Hazards that a viewer can't be properly warned about could be lurking around any corner.

[izzy]

I just had the same idea after realising this extension could be used for not just this but could be extended to different sort of content that aren't easily or safely consumable by everyone(think other sensory issues like auditory overstim) or could have other adverse reactions. There's a lot of value this extension could have in terms of health and safety.

[erkinalp]

Related: #1310

Could be merged into "intentional sensory overstimulation", with possible "remedies" of skipping, blackout, muting and full video.

[FlashlightET]

if they were merged would i be able to set it to skip earrape but not skip flashing lights

[erkinalp]

@FlashlightET #1308

[SethFalco]

I'd really like to see this as well as it would be a valuable accessibility feature which YouTube has skipped out on. It's important to note that it's not just about epilepsy, but general photosensitivity. One doesn't have to have seizures or the like to find high visual stimulation discomforting, and so I don't think this category/feature should be directly named after or tied to epilepsy, though that audience would ofc benefit from it.

Some videos that might be covered by a request like this:

• Visual
  • Ad (Flashes of highly saturated colors.)
  • How Many Shirts Will Stop a Bullet? (Flashes at 0:38, see Reddit comment.)

I have encountered numerous users who are seeking a solution to this problem which I believe SponsorBlock could solve. Also, just noting some external posts that essentially request this feature from YouTube:

• Reddit: YT should add a seizure warning section when we upload videos (1,300+ upvotes)
• Reddit: Can they put seizure warnings on any videos that have flashing lights? (171 upvotes)

[PencilVoid]

Came here to suggest this. I know it's not the main focus of the extension but it would be an incredibly valuable feature. I would suggest using separate categories for photosensitivity warnings and ear rape/screamers.

[Doksha]

I would suggest using separate categories for photosensitivity warnings and ear rape/screamers.

would probably be best to leave as one, if someone isn't bothered by loud noises but is bothered by flashing lights, they can hover over the timeline to see which it is, but the user submitting should be encouraged to black out screen if it is flashing lights, and mute audio if it is loud noises, devs seem to not like adding too many categories anyway, so this is probably best

[izzy]

would probably be best to leave as one, if someone isn't bothered by loud noises but is bothered by flashing lights they can hover over the timeline to see which it is

Please keep in mind that both of these are for some a mere annoyance but for others a matter of health/safety. It's like an elevator - for most people elevators are a nice feature of the building but for some people they are essential.

I feel like putting both in the same category and saying "people can figure it out with the timeline" ignores that they are each on their own a distinct overstimulation for certain groups of people and this puts the burden potentially on disabled people. Idk about you but to me that doesn't sound right.

[Doksha]

Please keep in mind that both of these are for some a mere annoyance but for others a matter of health/safety. It's like an elevator - for most people elevators are a nice feature of the building but for some people they are essential.

I feel like putting both in the same category and saying "people can figure it out with the timeline" ignores that they are each on their own a distinct overstimulation for certain groups of people and this puts the burden potentially on disabled people. Idk about you but to me that doesn't sound right.

as I said in the next half of the sentence, the main differentiation should be whether the screen is blacked, or the audio is muted.
if the devs won't implement a feature, it doesn't matter what the feature does; putting them separate will make the devs much less likely to implement it, they already have so many double purpose flags, and both should be implemented, I see it as the best option.

[Doksha]

This really needs to be added. SponsorBlock is a pretty popular (used enough that most videos have markers in them)
Even if a blackout feature cannot be added, simply skipping would be good enough. There are so many videos that will have severe flashing lights out of nowhere, which can be annoying or even painful for people even without photosensitivity (and severely dangerous for those that do have photosensitivity issues).

I know I was the last person to comment on this topic as well, but this would be a very important feature.

[lavenderdotpet]

agreed this would be very helpfully so many videos I watch have flashing in them.of some sort and I just have to look away or manually skip ahead while looking away

I thankfully don't get seizures but it is quite painful

[levyd75]

Like others, I just found this thread after coming here to suggest such a category.

Even people without medical conditions might find rapidly flashing lights/colors highly irritating, in line with other issues that SponsorBlock currently covers. The serious impact on photosensitive individuals only makes the issue more important.

[ajayyy]

This may be interesting to people here (it is not by me) https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/seizafe-epilepsy-alert-fo/goageegpmdbgenkgkhfhnnjmgmgboegi

[lavenderdotpet]

This may be interesting to people here (it is not by me) https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/seizafe-epilepsy-alert-fo/goageegpmdbgenkgkhfhnnjmgmgboegi

fuuck its chrome only

[lavenderdotpet]

might look into this more firefox says it might include payed shit but ill see later
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/epilepsy-blocker/

[izzy]

This may be interesting to people here (it is not by me) https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/seizafe-epilepsy-alert-fo/goageegpmdbgenkgkhfhnnjmgmgboegi

Tbh both Chrome and FF extensions seem to both have problems with development. Both haven't seen an update in a questionably long time and while the dev for the Chrome extension has been talking about an "big update" that was way back in January.

[MisterSheeple]

I'm really surprised this hasn't been implemented as a category yet. I kinda thought it would be considered common sense. Both this and loudness deserve to be their own categories to serve better accessibility IMO.

[Wemmy0]

It's definitely out of the scope of the original premise of the project but because it's become such a popular extension, with most videos you'd want to watch having segments, it's seems only logical to add a loudness and a flashing images category.

[captainharrie]

Came here to see if this has been suggested after I just got very suddenly hit with some aggressive flashing that was completely unwarned for until it was already happening and the YTer just said "sorry about the flashing btw" and am now going to be nursing a migraine for the next few days. These days if I watch a video on youtube there seems to be a 50% chance it'll include completely unwarned for flashing, and I'd really like to be able to skip these things automatically like I can with sponsored segments.

I do realise that sponsorblock's original scope was not for this purpose, but the specific purpose of sponsorblock was to skip sponsored segments of the video and we now have categories for skipping jokes, skipping intros and intermissions, and skipping recaps so there is already plenty of precedence for the extension going outside of its original scope and covering the general concept of skipping annoyances in a video, of which flashing/strobing/general eyestrain and loud noises all count as.

So in my opinion, this is within the current scope of the extension, and I'd really appreciate its inclusion.

[ChrisIsEditing]

Is this being considered by the team yet? It would be really great if this could be added!