Dizzy users close browsers: balancing creativity and accessibility

For millions with motion sensitivity, epilepsy, or autism, your site's animations can cause dizziness and nausea. True creativity means designing for everyone.

#1about 8 minutes

A personal journey with a vestibular disorder

The speaker shares a personal story about discovering a vestibular disorder, which causes dizziness and nausea from flickering lights and motion.

#2about 4 minutes

How web animations physically affect millions of users

Web animations can cause physical sickness for a large percentage of the population with vestibular disorders, vision disabilities, autism, and epilepsy.

#3about 3 minutes

Questioning the necessity of web animation today

An example of an email overloaded with GIFs illustrates how motion can make content unusable, raising the question of whether animation is truly essential.

#4about 5 minutes

Debunking the myth that accessibility kills creativity

Examples from art history and a 3D Braille painting demonstrate that creativity is not dependent on animation and that accessibility can be delightful for everyone.

#5about 8 minutes

Analyzing accessibility in award-winning websites

A review of Webby Award winners, like the Getty's Mesopotamia site, reveals that visually impressive, animation-heavy sites are often completely inaccessible to screen reader users.

#6about 5 minutes

Using animation purposefully and effectively for UX

Not all animation is bad; subtle, user-initiated micro-animations can enhance the user experience without causing harm if implemented accessibly.

#7about 6 minutes

Finding creativity in user experience and interaction

Comparing two insurance websites shows how creativity can be expressed through thoughtful user flow, language, and illustration rather than just flashy visual effects.

#8about 6 minutes

Simple guidelines for creative and accessible design

To balance creativity and accessibility, ask if an animation meaningfully improves the experience and ensure it doesn't create barriers, following WCAG's "pause, stop, hide" principle.