Epilepsy Action is a British
charity providing information, advice and support for people with
epilepsy.
Activities
Epilepsy Action provides
freephone and
email helplines and a wide range of information booklets, web pages and
e-learning courses. It has around 100 local support groups across
England,
Wales and
Northern Ireland and a network of
volunteers working in the community. It also organises
conferences for people with epilepsy and health professionals with an interest in the condition. It also has a website that includes information about epilepsy.
It undertakes and encourages non-
laboratory research into epilepsy and the issues surrounding living with the condition.
Since 2008, the charity has organised the annual
Bradford
Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...
10K athletics race which in 2019 attracted 3,000 runners.
Campaigns
The charity has received international media coverage on a number of occasions due to its work in highlighting bad practice in online videos in relation to
photosensitive epilepsy.
* In 2007, it claimed that 30 people had
seizures as a result of a segment of animated footage commissioned by the organising committee of the
London 2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
to promote its logo.
* In 2011, Epilepsy Action highlighted issues with the video for the
Kanye West song "
All of the Lights". Tests of the video showed that it failed the flashing images guidelines set down by UK broadcasting watchdog
Ofcom
The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom.
Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...
and so was likely to trigger a seizures in someone with photosensitive epilepsy. A warning was placed on
YouTube for people watching the video on its website.
* In 2015, it highlighted the presence of advertisements with flashing content that were posted on
Vine by
Twitter. The
Advertising Standards Authority confirmed that Twitter were in breach of its guidelines.
References
External links
Official website
{{Seizures and epilepsy
Epilepsy organizations
Health charities in the United Kingdom
Organizations established in 1950
Charities based in West Yorkshire
Health in Yorkshire