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Being able to recognize when content can be harmful for individuals with photosensitive epilepsy can give people the opportunity to release content that is safe for all viewers.

TRACE researchers Dr. Bern Jordan and Dr. Gregg Vanderheiden recently had their work on photosensitive epilepsy published in the ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing journal.

Photosensitive epilepsy, or PSE, is a condition where a person is susceptible to seizures when viewing specific types of flashing lights or certain visual patterns. Approximately 1 in every 4000 people has PSE, and with the increase in screen content (videos, television, etc.), there is an increased risk of encountering content that is harmful. Most people who have PSE do not know what specific types of content will cause them to have seizures, as photosensitivity is not something that people are normally screened for. Because of this, it is important that content creators, television networks, and mobile app developers review their content to make sure it is safe for everyone. But how do they know if something is possibly harmful for people with PSE? 

There are a series of different standards, guidelines, and tools for analyzing content. The standards detail what aspects of content could be harmful, such as the color, area, or intensity of a flash, or the number of flashes. The various standards are similar, but have some small contradictions. Furthermore, video formats and display technologies have changed since the standards were established. To create safer content, people use analysis tools to scan content that they already created against the standards. For example, the Harding Flash and Pattern Analyzer and Photosensitive Epilepsy Analysis Tool (PEAT), created by the TRACE RERC, are tools that can automatically analyze broadcast and video game content. 

The TRACE RERC is doing impactful work in this area: researching the standards and beginning development on a new open-source version of PEAT. The recently published paper goes into detail about the different standards and proposes updated guidance that accounts for newer display technologies.

This paper is available to read for free: International Guidelines for Photosensitive Epilepsy: Gap Analysis and Recommendations (2024).