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Comment by nitins_jakta | Hacker News Reader

Unfortunately it looks like Apple still has no option to disable temporal dithering or other sources of flicker (PWM, pixel inversion, etc).

A minority of people have binocular vision dysfunctions (like convergence insufficiency) that give them severe eyestrain, headaches and migraines when this flicker occurs. Apple should treat this like an accessibility issue (like VoiceOver) but does not. The current treatment from behavioral optometrists is not always effective.

I recently found a whole community on this: https://ledstrain.org.

If you have expertise in displays, please join us on LED Strain! We were hoping Apple would address these accessibility issues and let people with vision problems use their products.

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Have you considered trying Neurolens? http://www.neurolenses.com/

If you've already tried prism lenses to help address the convergence insufficiency then these won't help. These are basically prism lenses but they're a progressive prism so the prism is strongest at the bottom and nonexistent at the top so you can wear one pair of glasses all day and have them help with devices but still have good distance vision through the top part of the lens.

Thanks for pointing this out.

We actually have a discussion about Neurolens on LEDStrain: https://ledstrain.org/d/754-trigeminal-dysphoria-and-neurole...

I plan to give them a try. But unfortunately it does not work for everyone.

Have you had success with them? Many other members have convergence excess (esophoria) or vertical heterophoria.

I have exophoria and myopia I am quite comfortable at the computer all day. Before I was diagnosed with exophoria and got these, I found my own way to cope which was to wear an old pair of glasses which were a much weaker prescription in terms of diopters. Whenever at the computer I would need to switch glasses to the weaker prescription or my eyes would bother me. With Neurolens wearing the same glasses all day whether or not I’m at the computer feels perfectly fine and I have zero eye strain at the computer.

Great to hear you found a solution. I believe Neurolens is focused on treating exophoria where the prism correction required is different at near vs. distance. In most patients, the correction required at near is greater.

The Neurolens are also unfortunately very expensive and seems to not be covered by insurance. But I think most people would gladly pay out of pocket to get relief. I surely would.

Do you have to use laptops with cathode backlights instead?

Ah, so for most of us LED itself is not strictly the problem. Low quality ones with a low refresh rate, like in some department stores, are a problem.

It is likely other sources of flicker like temporal dithering (FRC), you can see it here (it is on Windows too): https://youtu.be/0y-I3hqQgCQ

The visual noise/dots you see is the dithering. The e-ink display is slow enough so we can see it.

People with BVDs are strongly affected by that noise...and unfortunately simple pair of glasses does not help.

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