Context
Visual static
a persistent overlay of flickering "snow" across everything a person sees
Light sensitivity
brightness and glare directly intensify symptoms
Text blur
sustained reading becomes straining and exhausting
Visual Snow Syndrome is a neurological condition — and a blind spot in accessibility practice. Mainstream standards assume more contrast and sharpness are always better; for people with VSS, those "best practices" can directly worsen symptoms. I live with VSS myself, which is where this project started.
Challenge
Accessibility built for the majority can create new barriers for minorities.
Design a reading experience that reduces harm — and turn what works into a framework other designers can apply.
Research
Autoethnography
grounded in my own lived experience with VSS
n=15
community survey across the VSS community
n=4
in-depth interviews
2 rounds
of usability testing driving iteration
A system map exposed the loop at the heart of the problem:
Key insights
Five recurring themes from synthesis:
Lighting & colour
Low luminance matters more than contrast ratios.
Text & legibility
Maximum sharpness can intensify visual static.
Motion & stability
Any movement compounds existing instability.
Nature-inspired calm
Natural tones consistently reduced strain.
Customisation
Symptoms vary — control beats any single "correct" setting.
Design guidelines
Harm reduction first
No "best practice" overrides a user's sensory reality.
Calm by default
Low luminance; zero motion unless opted in.
Autonomy
Every sensory dimension adjustable, every preference persistent.
An adaptive system
Accessibility as an ongoing journey, not a feature.
Published as VSS-Friendly Design Guidelines — building on, and critiquing, conventional accessibility principles.
Exploration
Two testing rounds drove the iterations: palettes tuned toward low-luminance natural ranges, controls restructured around what users actually adjusted, motion stripped to zero by default.
Solution
A calm reading mode where the defaults protect, and every dimension stays in the reader's hands.
Validation
Round 2
users adjusted settings with confidence
Stable reading
participants reported comfortable, sustained reading
Guidelines
a transferable framework, beyond one interface
Reflection
Lived experience is a research instrument — but only when paired with rigor. Accessibility standards encode assumptions about whose bodies count; evidence can challenge them.