Thread: Does anyone know...Epilepsy question

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2 years ago.

A little girl came by our house, with her whole family, and it changed how I tend to look at things. To this day, I do not know their names, or the full nature of 'what is wrong' with her, merely that among other things, she is epileptic.

2 years ago, I had a strobe to produce a simple effect on a static prop in a darkened area. This family came by, and I heard this girl commenting how 'this is another house' she couldn't go up to because of the strobe. I offered to turn it off for her, and she said she didn't want to 'ruin it' for her sisters. I knelt down right there and promised her a much better haunt that would be safe for her to go through the following year.

Last year, you could hear her excitedly urging her parents to skip the other houses to get to my place quicker. And, you could hear her parents telling her not to get excited because I might have forgotten. And yes, the display was night and day better than the year before. To her mind, that was all 'for her'.

She asked if I had remembered to fix it when they came up. Her parents started to explain, but I just told her that yes, it was indeed safe. Her parents thanked me with tears in their eyes, but her excitement was more than enough thanks.

So, my question is, then, as I look for adding new things. Does anyone know of some kind of list of what is safe for photosensitive epilepsy? I can't find anything but descriptions on the web. I know what it is, I need a 'yes or no'.

Strobes are out, ok.
Black lights?
What about 'flickering' battery operate tea lights (they strobe more than flicker)?
Black/white patterns are a no-no.
But would flourescent writing against a black background, lit by a blacklight produce the same results? (no dot room or anything like that, that's probably bad, just wanting the writing to stand out, but could muck along with regular paint too)

etc etc etc.

Anyone have any idea? Have experiences with such a thing?

It's possible I could rope off certain areas as unsafe, I suppose, but would rather avoid that.

I have not run across this at my haunt, but for 25 years, I used to be a mobile DJ with a substantial light show.

The only problem I ever ran into was strobe lights. I can understand issues of high contrast black and white patterns as well, but that never came up in the DJ world.

I use strobes now for my lightning effect, but they do not run continuously. They just randomly flash is small bursts to simulate real lightning.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think strobes are only a problem if they are runningcontinuously in a steady pattern and speed. A few seconds is enough, but I think it's the evenly spaced pulses that sets people off, not random flashes and bursts here and there.

So, I think strobes are OK depending on their use. I am not using them for the 'Stop Action' effect that they are intended for.

Again, if I am wrong, I would like to know.

Well, from what I've been able to gather....

The factors include:

Speed of the flashes (5 - 30 per second being the common problem areas, with problems under 5/second being very rare)
Brightness
Background lighting
How much of the field of vision is exposed
whether it's moving our not (to the persons POV, so if they're walking, it's moving)

I have not seen anywhere claming length of time of exposure to the strobe being a potential factor, though.

So, I'm guessing there are those that could have problem, for instance, if it was used to light a large field of vision and was bright enough. Whereas using the same thing lighting a corner prop with decent ambient lighting would likely be ok. If that makes any sense.

I talked with my wife she is in the medical field and works with the physically and mentally challenged (PC?) At any rate she told me that balck liights should be ok anything that flickers is pretty much out of the question. She also tells me it truly depends on the person level of sensitivity and such. For example some epilepticcs can even be affected by a video game.

Hope this helps

P.S.
Bravo on your caring about others we need mpre people like you in this world

Cheers to you Unorthodox! My epileptic acquaintance informs me that the flashing lights are the main issue (certain frequencies are more of a trigger than others). You have that taken care of though. Black light shouldnt be a problem as it seems to be more of a repeating pattern issue.

DB

I have not any experience, although my 63 year old mother became epileptic 2 years ago, but mostly has it under control. Her attacks were not set off by anything we could tell though...but she has always hated strobes.
For my haunt, I added a warning about strobes in the rules sign. I have the strobes pointed at things, not at the TOTS though, which as I understand, is better. If anyone said anything, I could easliy turn them off and do a special run through for that person.
I dont think you have to eliminate them, but you can easily warn about them, like most pro haunts do.
Anyone who can be set off by strobes knows it, and will usually ask or avoid them.

A very good post, Ox, I've used strobes for a long time now, and it's always nagged at me - "what if these things trigger a seizure in somebody, how could I live with myself?"
And I mean USE STROBES. We've had them in just about every stage of our walk-thrus, from Psycho The Clown to the Mad Scientist's Lab to the Werewolf Cage to Mrs. Bates' Parlor. Happily, none of our guests over the years have fallen. We use the strobes to accentuate the climactic moment of each room, when the music reaches a crescendo and the screaming starts.
Used long term, I don't believe that strobes have much effect. But when Frankenstein breaks his chains or Mrs. Bates starts waving that knife or Jason bursts into a room with a chainsaw, they have maximum impact. At the very most, our guests are never exposed to strobes for more than about ten seconds at a time.

I'd also add that when I asked the doctors and nurses...more than one...what I or my family should do the next time my mother started to have a seizure, the unanimous answer was "Let her have it". Do not try and restrain the person. Do not worry about the old saw of holding the tongue to keep them from choking. The chief danger is the person falling and hurting themself. Catch them if you can, bear them gently to the ground, and remove close by obstructions if possible that they my hit with arms or legs.
My moms rather sudden spell of seizures caused her to fall and break her collarbone, with no memory of it. She also had one driving on the interstate, fortunately, my aunt was with her and was able to take the wheel. Since diagnosed, meds keep it pretty well controlled.
If you are worried about it, read up on it, ask a doctor for advice on prevention and handling one, and disseminate it to your actors. Unlike a heart attack, which we are probably far more likely to trigger, a seizure is not generally a life threatening thing. Give them a few minutes and they will come out of it. And unless they fall hard, you probably won't need to call an ambulance...they will be just fine. While they are nerve wracking for witnesses, at least in my moms case, she was not even aware of them...she just wondered how she came to be on the floor.

By no means am I suggesting everyone needs to just cease using strobes. Just that since I know, for a fact, there's someone coming that can be effected by them, I'm choosing to make it as safe as possible. And where I am targetting 3-12 year olds anyway, I've found we didn't really lose much scare factor in removing them.

I think that for the most part why none of us have ever had problems, is that photosensitive epileptics are conditioned to avoid haunted houses. Heck, I've used em for 15 years before this without any incident to my knowledge. It was only chance I overheard her talking to her parents about it to begin with. Could have easily been seen as just another scared kid that didn't want to go in.

In talking with this girl's parents as she went through, she had given up and was just not going to go ToT that year (she's 9). See, there's 2 other houses that do walkthroughs in the neighborhood, and a number more with yard displays, all of which had strobes she couldn't approach. Then she saw me put out my sign at the first of October (I don't start setting up till a week before, and none of the better props till day of to prevent any teenagers getting ideas) and remembered I had promised to 'fix it' for her. I was apparantly the sole reason she went out that year, hence why she was heard all the way down the street. And frankly, seeing her joy was worth as much as the other 400 that came through.

As for posting warnings, those warnings tell you not to enter. Not to go ask for special treatment. No, I highly doubt anyone will ever go ask you to turn em off just for them.

UnOrthodOx,
Sorry, I don't have any insight to epilepsy. I just wanted to say that your kindness is very touching, thank you for sharing your story. I had never thought of our strobe light possibly being a problem for some. I will gladly remove it this year.

My hat is off to all that do everything they can to include ALL people to participate in the fun.