Friday, January 22, 2016

Accessible Lighting for Sensory-Friendly Environments

About a month ago, I was browsing Facebook and came across a fellow autistic person's commentary and explanation of their difficulties with lighting.  It seems they notice (suffer through) flickering in some kinds of lighting, like LEDs, but not in other kinds, like incandescent bulbs.  The flickering hurts their eyes, making some places downright painful and headache-inducing.

They linked to this: http://www.archlighting.com/technology/leds-fighting-flicker_o

And proceeded to explain: 
"Incandescent filaments react more slowly to changes in their power source, and kind of trail off the glow when shut off due to thermal persistence (heat maintaining the amount of light being emitted), so even though on alternating current the it receives power in a non-steady way, the bulb appears continuously lit. For LEDs, the reaction time is quicker, so that as electricity alternates the filament switches on and off rapidly, not maintaining glow in between. I perceive this as flicker and it is awful. (This would explain why I used to think LED lights were mostly non-flickery, since LED flashlights and that were on direct current power supplied by batteries.) Fluorescent lights also flicker at 120 hertz, making school definitely worse for me all the way through.
So that's what I mean when I talk about sensory-friendly vs inaccessible lighting; lights that flicker add constant extra sensory input (like a radio playing static) to everything else I'm trying to process, and lights that look steady to others unfortunately may not look steady to me. That the US has been trying to phase out incandescent bulbs bodes pretty ill for me and others who have overly keen perception of light."
If this doesn't make sense to you: all lights, even perfectly working ones, flicker to a degree.  However, the flickering differs depending on your type of light.  Incandescent bulbs continue to glow even after the loss of power, because of heat.  This ensures a steadier light source.  LEDs, however, simply shut off with no buffer. To someone with sensitive eyes/brain, this flickering is visible, distracting, and painful.

I don't personally have this particular superpower/annoyance, but I kind of relate by comparing my experiences with messed up fluorescent lights in classrooms or lecture areas.  Y'know the kind that just flicks on and off every few seconds?  Maybe it's not screwed in properly, or the bulb is on the end of its lifespan, or there's something wonky with the wiring.  But it's just that one bulb, and I glared at it through the entire lesson, while it incessantly flicked on-off. on-off.

So now imagine one of those bulbs in every room.  The light keeps changing, which makes it hard to focus on the presentation, or the person talking to you, or the job you're doing.  Now imagine every lightbulb is that lightbulb.  And still having to try and focus through that, all day, every day.  Now imagine no one knows what you're talking about when you react to that stupid flickery bulb, or mention it in conversation.

According to other posts in the conversation,  this person makes do with their situation by bringing a desk lamp with an incandescent bulb to work.  I imagine their home is also strictly sensory-friendly lighting. 

2 comments:

  1. I find that when I look at LED Christmas lights and roll my eyes it leaves a dotted trail so I know those things flicker.

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  2. I have never experienced the troubles caused by incandescent lamps, and now I use LED lights.

    ReplyDelete