Veronica Lewis
Veronica Lewis, a George Mason University junior, who plans to major in information technology, said she takes the greatest pleasure in one-on-one interactions with those who have been helped by her blog “Veronica With Four Eyes.”
“I don’t need to hear it from millions of different people,” she said.
But that’s kind of what happened after Lewis wrote a Twitter thread that went viral describing how the movie “Incredibles 2” could affect audience health because of scenes with strobe and flashing lights. In apparent response, Disney/Pixar asked theaters to post signs advising of those scenes, Variety reported.
The story was reported worldwide. You can read the Twitter thread here.
“I just wanted to help as many people as I could,” Lewis said. “I’ve been thrilled to see my message has done that all around the world.”
Lewis has low vision (specifically, blurry double vision, limited peripheral vision and no depth perception, none of which can be corrected with glasses) and accommodative esotropia, which refers to crossed eyes. She said she had a migraine headache after watching the movie.
Her thread warned that strobe and flashing lights could adversely affect people with epilepsy, chronic migraines, vision impairment, vertigo, autism and PTSD. The Epilepsy Foundation warns that seizures can be triggered by flashing lights.
“I was excited that 24 hours after I wrote the thread that Disney listened to me and started putting up warnings at ticket windows,” Lewis said. “For that, I cannot thank them enough.”
Lewis, who plans to pursue a master’s degree in the Assistive Technology Program at Mason, has been thanked numerous time through Twitter and said her Twitter followers increased from 200 to 520 after the thread went viral.
“All the attention is great, but I feel like my favorite interactions are when someone comes up to me who has a vision impairment similar to mine and says thank you,” Lewis said.
“I want my blog to continue to be a resource for people with vision impairments,” she said. “I just want to write positive posts about how to help students with vision impairments navigate special education and assistive technology and help a lot of other people as well.”