Flashing Website Ads and Autism

I was recently trying to read an article on USAToday about autism. The article had so many flashing ads around it that it was literally impossible to read the article without things flashing. Many of the ads had no way to stop them.

This is completely ridiculous.

The web has great potential for providing valuable information to people of all backgrounds. A blind person can have a text-reading program read the page to them. A deaf person can get captions on many YouTube videos.

But people sensitive to flashing lights? People with epilepsy and other related issues?

They’re completely on their own.

If there was a way to quickly stop an ad, it’d be one thing. But many of these ads have no way at all to get them to stop. You’d have to literally stick post-it notes on your screen – and then move them as you scrolled the page – to be able to deal with this issue.

We need to speak out when we see issues like this. The companies involved are focused on money. Apparently flashing and moving ads get peoples’ attention and that’s all they care about.

The more we readers say we are going to refuse to read their sites as a result, the more they might actually care about these issues.

Please use the ‘contact’ link on sites to be heard. Make sure you speak out. Because there are many sufferers who will not be able to handle the issue and who will be driven away from valuable resources.

Light bulb photo sourced from Pixabay / Myriams-Fotos