New update not disability-friendly
To make a long story short, I have problems with my motor functions, and it causes my hands to jerk around even when I'm sitting idly. I usually have my hand resting on the mouse so I can scroll through chat messages. This new update causes the chat messages to be highlighted rapidly by my moving cursor, and the new reactions and other message-related hotbar on the righthand side constantly popping up and shifting is so hard on my eyes. I feel like the chat is spazzing out just because of my difficulties controlling my hands, and it's almost impossible to read without my eyes following the blocked highlighting and that hotbar filled with my most-used emojis.
I am sincerely pleading with Discord staff to remove this feature, or at least make it a toggle option, because I have no way to revert back to a previous update to get rid of this, and reading is now borderline impossible. I already suffer from chronic migraines; this is only going to exacerbate that if i have to be constantly looking at flashing message blocks in the chat.
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Seconding this, I've got adhd and the changes in color combined with the large pop-up button in the corner and the removed divider line between users is incredibly difficult to use and concentrate on- If these are being added, they should be an option that can be turned on/off
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YES. Adhd and anxiety here, and I cannot take all of the complicated things going on at once. All the messages run together, I don't want messages highlighted because it forces me to focus on whatever my mouse is resting on, and the addition of the reaction bar is making my brain go haywire. The devs at Discord have seemed to strive to accommodate disabilities, but this makes it so much worse. I hope the devs will do the right thing here.
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The reaction suggestion bar is triggering some really bad anxiety in me. I already don't like change, and when the change creates clutter like that, something that will not go away and you can't avoid if you want to do as little as scroll down, it's way too much for me. I sent a help request asking them to tell me how to turn it off if it's possible because I'm having a breakdown over it. I know logically I shouldn't be this upset but it's not something I can help.
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Thank you, Jesse, for pointing this out. I have dyslexia and chronic cognitive impairments, and I have a terrible time even just deciphering and reading my messages with friends now.
I also agree with the statements above: as much as Discord does strive to accommodate disabilities, the shades and colours are harsher on eyes. I understand if someone doesn't "agree" or "like" an update, but this is not accommodating for those with disabilities.90 -
Thank you. This is terrible on my eyes too. I can see how this would be especially difficult now for you and others. This update should have never gone through QA. It's an eyesore, and now is causing even more complications for everyone with impairments or disabilities. This update has to go, or at least like you pointed out, be an option to be toggled on and off. An update is useless if it provides more difficulty for the users. In my opinion, the interface was fine the way it was before.
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This is so important. Please fix this Discord.
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the hovers are so distracting and everything is so tiny and squished. please god we cant see anything
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I am autistic and the interface changes are really making me uncomfortable, the reduced spacing between the most recent message and the box for typing messages in particular. The highlighting of messages doesn't make sense to me, it doesn't seem to make anything more efficient (if i wanted to react quickly, i can use the emoji selection box), and feels cluttered and too colorful.
Please make an option to toggle between any newer, up-to-date versions and "classic" Discord layouts, or something that works like that. Please.
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Discord, this time it's too much.
Like the other contributors to this thread, I am autistic, I also have attention deficit disorder and dyspraxia.
This update is the worst of all the updates you've imposed on us in the three years I've been using the application daily.You've been doing whatever you want for years. You impose your updates on us, without any possibility of going against it, without risking being banned for using BetterDiscord or BeautifulDiscord, and all we can do is complain without ever being heard. This time I can't stand it any more.
That software changed my life. It has allowed me to reconnect with a social life, and I spend all my days there. I support it in every way I can, I have a sticker on my laptop, I pay Nitro, I even pay for extra Boosts, I love Discord, okay, that was never the point.All I want now is for you to respect my disability. All these changes are incredibly stressful, the disappearance of the line makes the chat confusing, it's hard to find your way around even more in compact mode. The reaction panel is irrelevant, it spoils some long written messages.
That you want to change things is perfectly reasonable, but why always do it this military way?!
Frankly, in terms of respect for people with disabilities, it's a real zero. When you claim to listen to your community, you take that into account as well. It just shows a lack of education on validism, as when you had removed the light theme for April 1 last yer.You're making fun of us. It's really not funny. It's really not fair. You may think we're exaggerating, but everyone tells you: it's unusable!
I'm sick of it, frankly. Give us back our Discord. The one we've loved since day one, the one that doesn't upset all the users' habits just because you want change. Don't behave only as neurotypicals interested in yourself, take into account the needs of your disabled community.
Reconcile these new updates with the possibility of keeping the old interface, or accept that we can edit our own CSS, make your old code available to you.
But something cruel tells me that you will never do that...
So I opened a reddit thread, and I will talk about this on Twitter until you listen to us and you acknowledge we exist for you. Beyond simple preferences, we need this old interface. Please help us.
I know how frustrating it can be to see such a novelty rejected by the community, but you are not self-centered. You have often proven your generosity and openness, so for once we need you to accept criticism and cancel all these changes as soon as possible.
Please accept.
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The horizontal rule between messages was pretty important for accessibility in my case. I find it hard to almost impossible to easily follow along conversations especially if they are moving fast now and already I feel less willing to use Discord because of the hassle.
I'm not here to spend tons of effort to just keep up with everyone to attempt to be at their level, I'm here to relax and communicate with friends and others. Right now I just kinda want to log off instead of feeling like an idiot now being behind everyone.
So uh, Discord please give us at least the option to return hr between senders, it was very helpful for accessibility. Until then I'm probably gonna stop using it as much. It's not worth it.
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I don't have disabilities, but it is so distracting.
please revert back or give us an option to disable it45 -
I have autism, ADHD, and chronic migraines. The new UI is practically unreadable for me because it's so cluttered.
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Chiming in as someone with ADHD, focusing with the new UI vs. the relatively "cozy" old UI is a nightmare. A dyslexic member of my main community also pointed out what a nightmare the new UI is going to be for them personally when it hits.
EDIT: At least two other members w/ similar brain situations have come in, looked at New UI screencaps from those of us Cursed™ and expressed concerns. I haven't seen a single member so far express that it made it more readable.44 -
Undo pls. Seeing and concentrating is hard.
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Seriously please realize that for many of us who have disabilities this isn't simply a personal preference its actually causing us real problems as people have pointed out. this isn't people acting dramatic so please for ONCE listen to us and at least add an option to revert to the previous design and perhaps in the future consult with people who do design with disabled persons in mind.
at least we can simply prevent the mobile application from updating
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Going to chime in here as someone with ADHD, autism, dyslexia and vision problems: This whole update is honestly the worst thing you could of possibly added.
- The pop-ups in the chat are extremely distracting and overwealming, and cover up messages with the zoom that we have to have to have on.
- The removal of dividers makes it harder for me to differentiate messages from different people.
- The change of a messages colour when having your cursor over a message honestly is confusing to us
- And the changes you did to the friends page are extremly overwhelming and disorientating.
Please Discord, listen to your users for once, especially the disabled users. This isn't a preference, this is something that is literally affecting our abilities to use your site. Either revert the changes or at least let us disable them
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I’m autistic and this update is hell for me. I can barely use the site on my laptop (which is what I mainly use,) so I have to use an iPad which is bad for the joints in my fingers. Seriously. Listen to ya darn users. Say disabled rights for once.
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Since I didn't see this mentioned yet BLOCKS OF TEXT ARE INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE WITH DYSLEXIA TO READ - BY REMOVING THE BARRIERS BETWEEN MESSAGES DISCORD HAS EFFECTIVELY MADE DISCORD UNUSABLE AS IT HAS BECOME JUST A GIANT UNREADABLE BLOCK OF TEXT.
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please for the love of god revert this hell update
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I have astigmatism and sensory processing problems. The new update makes messages difficult to read properly. The strain from this can potentially lead to a migraine, as I have chronic headache and migraine disorders as well. I need the option to use the previous UI.
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As someone with ADHD, I agree with the above posts. The lack of lines between users has made reading text much harder, especially for people who have disabilities or those who got used to the old way (i.e everyone.) You should test major features like this UI change and get the community's opinion on them before rolling them out.
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Another person with chronic ADHD here.
These things others may think of as just "little trifles" are downright debilitating for our sense of focus and productivity. I've been struggling with this update, too.
I use discord exclusively to communicate with my loved ones on the other half of the world, and the more clustered appearance and removal of dividers has turned everything into a giant wall of text... which has severely frustrated me and funked up my "flow".
Not to even start to mention the lowlight + menu thing that pops up on mouseover... ugh.I have been an avid supporter of Discord for many years, but the change in how they've communicated with their users, handled updates, and dealt with feedback has really... made me question my loyalty, to say the least. I'm considering cancelling my Nitro sub, what with the changes to it and then this nonsense right after.
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Been hit with the update today as well, and also feeling like it's VERY distracting and cluttered. Hard to read. Please take this back to the drawing board, or at least give an option to revert.
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I haven't heard anyone say something nice about the UI update, maybe that's a coincidence but it seems like a lot more issues have come of it than anything else. I don't have a disability or anything but I do find it annoying and distracting. If nothing else, I'm sure everyone would appreciate the option to have it one way or another rather than being forced to deal with it.
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Dyslexic, and autistic. Bluntly put, while I won't straight up say this update made Discord unusable for me, it's... It's not good. I am having a much harder time using your platform now than I did yesterday.
Discord, why is it so hard to add toggles for UI changes? This isn't the first time you've flopped on disability stuff before, why is it so hard for you guys to actually listen?
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Aside from all of the disability-unfriendly stuff people have mentioned, it straight up looks worse, and it's so cluttered and ugly. It worked perfectly fine as it was!! I don't see a reason for this completely unnecessary change.
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This new update is terrible.
The lack of lines between messages, the "new message" bar, messages getting darker when you mouse over them, all of these things make discord cluttered and hard for me to use as an autistic person.
If this update is not reverted, or we are not given an option to toggle it on/off I am afraid i will have to leave the platform as the stress and difficulty of using it are not worth the benefits.
(Oh another thing about the entire UI update, just looking at it makes me nauseus and my head hurt)16 -
I sent them a message on Twitter and they redirected me here, so just throwing my hat in the ring as well! I suffer from severe eye fatigue but still like to game and chat late into the night like any warmblooded fool. Discord's dark theme was the best interface by far for letting me do that - assisted with f.lux and other screen mods.
This update has made alt-tabbing to discord to see chat a minor hazard. The flashing effect hovering over messages has gives me a pretty bad headache and if I persisted looking at it, would probably prompt a migraine if not a more severe neurological response.
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I am the owner of a mental health server that supports people suffering with mental health illnesses. This update will impact upon the ability of my users to interact with my server. Therefore I agree with this notion of removing the currently active feature.
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URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT
Discord acknowledged the criticism for the first time. On the partner Discord server where most of our reviews were relayed, a Discord developer recognised this:
We are aware of the feedback on most of this, and the team will take a look at it tomorrow
quikblend#0001 - You can find a screenshot here.
In addition, you can find a support response that seems to be starting to recognize errors here: https://twitter.com/discordapp/status/1225076859102203912.
As a consequence, it seems that the first step, recognising that there is a problem, has been achieved, but it is far from enough now.
However, this is far from satisfactory. Discord must now acknowledge our existence and formally respond to our grievances by restoring the old IU as an option, or significantly improving the current IU to take into account the needs of people with disabilities.
We ask for an official statement of Discord, certifying the above commitments and we ask it with all the affection we have for this software that we want to continue to use.
For the well-being of disabled people who use your software on a daily basis, please yield.
You can follow the situation by this link: https://www.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/eyjmqc/discord_please_think_of_people_with_disabilities/.19
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