After adjusting for a couple days, these changes turned out to be even worse than I initially foresaw
I made a post regarding this as soon as I noticed the changes, and I was pretty harsh. Turns out I actually underestimated how terrible they were actually going to be in day-to-day use.
I have ADHD and bad eyesight. I'm sensitive to colors and brightness and have mild to moderate blue light filters on all my devices, which has solved most if not all of these problems until now. Discord has made itself actively hostile to people with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, colorblindness, and color sensitivities, and in a very, very prominent way.
- The fluorescent purple is MUCH more prevalent than I initially realized. Good god, it's inescapable. I thought I'd be able to avoid it and hopefully skirt around my issues as much as possible but giant blocks of it, buttons, bot tags, and banners are everywhere. It's distracting and it hurts my head in a way that I've never really experienced with any other app. I have to look away the instant I realize I've glanced at it to avoid hurting my eyes.
- I have trouble reading the buttons that aren't in fluorescent purple, too. The colors are so oversaturated and clash so horribly with the background that it makes my vision even more blurry than it usually is.
- The font is bizarrely hard to read. I'm not dyslexic and I've never quite experienced a problem like this where the font actually feels like it's making me strain my eyes. I can't nail down the specifics on what makes it so difficult and awkward to parse, but if I'm struggling with it then it's probably not very friendly to people with more severe disabilities than my own.
- Pings are incredibly distracting and disrupt the flow of conversation for me. They look terrible and make the app that much harder to use.
Yeah, this wasn't the move, guys. I'm someone with comparatively minor visual impairments and sensitivities and I'm experiencing problems I've literally never had with any other social media platform.
I cancelled my nitro almost immediately and probably won't be resubscribing seeing as there are literal hundreds of these posts and the problem hasn't even been addressed.
"Accessibility is something we take very seriously at Discord."
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I can’t possibly agree more. I’m not neurodivergent…this is a new-ish issue for me. Certain blue led or neon signs have always been hard for me to see but this color gives me double vision, is very hard to focus on, and makes my eyes itch to look at. They’re response has basically been “can’t please everyone lulz, change happens” …this is actively injuring users. This isn’t a design choice, it’s HARMFUL.
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I have ADHD and sight issues too. Exact same problems. The font doesn't bother me too-too much but the colors are so straining to my eyes. The new purple is honestly awful, I didn't know that a purple could be so off putting.
And it's not like I can avoid it either, all my friend groups are established here.
Please either revert your changes and do a soft revamp later if you want a new look without harming your consumers. We need you guys to fix this for us
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I noticed that Discord replied to someone’s concerns about accessibility with a feedback form! I filled it out already, so I hope others in do and share it with friends as well to let them know how inaccessible and garish the new colors, font, etc. are for users.
Link to their tweet about it: https://twitter.com/discord/status/1392869194413355009
Link to their Google form feedback itself: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdTzNbITTRx4BYWFlC3gi_lEi3D3rsa9VCBK_EphF5myDb7uw/viewformThey claim accessibility is taken very seriously, so let’s be sure to inform them of how difficult these new changes are for people.
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I'm right here with you. I can't use the app at all any more. And like you, I saw the feedback form. I filled it out but seriously, WTF? They are flat out lying. Just as a note, 140million users in 2020, 75k users supposedly studied for these changes. That's... %0.5 of their user base?
Yes, they clearly take accessibility seriously.
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Yep. I agree. it literally hurts to look at, and using 3rd party apps such as Betterdiscord are apparently TOS breaking. It's horrid.
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Agreed. So many people have been having headaches, seizure auras, migraines, and general eyestrain - both disabled and abled, and neurodivergent and neurotypical.
Discord, stop saying that you care when you so obviously don't. It's been weeks.
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At this rate I’m just going to suspend my account, and find another service.
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