Epilepsy

Way back when I was still a kid and Pokemon was popular, there was a big controversy when the news reported that kids in Japan watching the cartoon had epileptic seizures. As with any phenomenon involving children and overzealous parents, a large protest ensued about children and cartoons with flashing lights. However, as Epilepsy.com explains, there is a difference between having one seizure and suffering from a seizure disorder. After reading through various informational websites regarding epilepsy, I am convinced that many parents overreacted. Parents should become knowledgeable about epilepsy before accusing cartoons such as Pokemon of harming their children. I found two sites that were exceptionally informative: "Epilepsy.com" and "Neuroscience for Kids - Epilepsy."

Epilepsy.com can be considered one of the foremost authorities on the Internet about epilepsy. The content is extensive and in-depth--I spent an hour just reading the basics of epilepsy. In addition to providing information regarding seizures and epilepsy, the site also has information concerning diagnosing the disorder, treatment, living with epilepsy, and other resources that users may want to access. The content of the site, however, was not what impressed me; it was the site's outstanding design. All the subjects were effectively divided and titled on the navigation bar. The home page contains the latest news regarding treatments and updates on the site. And on the top of the page, users can change the website to cater to their needs by selecting an age group such as kids, teens, women, families, and seniors. The site provides a clean and welcoming page for anybody who is searching for information because the individual or another family member has been diagnosed with the condition. The website certainly deserves its Webby nomination.

The other website, "Neuroscience for Kids - Epilepsy," was created by Professor Eric H. Chudler of the University of Washington. His website does provide a lot of information, and presents it in a style that is simple and catered towards children. However, the site's design is not as clean and organized as Epilepsy.com. I found it to be especially difficult to navigate through the epilepsy page: the top of the page has what seems to be a navigation bar, but they are only links to different sections of the page. This didn't seem to be problematic at first, but the problems became evident when I clicked on a link that was on the bottom of the page, and found out that to get back to the top of the page, I had to scroll all the way back up to the title. The links are only effective if one wishes to look at a certain section. Despite the design flaws, the website does contain information that children can use. However, since Epilepsy.com also contains pages specifically for children, I would have to recommend Epilepsy.com over Dr. Chudler's website.