Venkatesh Potluri

Venkatesh Potluri

aspiring researcher, drummer, lifelong learner.

About me

I am an Assistant Professor at the School of Information, University of Michigan. I obtained my Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, where I was advised by Prof. Jennifer Mankoff. I am an an Apple Scholar, and a Google Lime Scholar. In my research so far,I examined accessibility barriers experienced by blind or visually impaired (BVI) developers participating in professional programming domains such as user interface design, data science, and physical computing. My past work contributed real-world systems to improve developer tools and new interaction techniques to address these access barriers.

Broadly, my research interests fall into areas of HCI and Accessibility. I believe that using technology is a human experience, just like living with a disability is, and every person involved in designing technology has a part to play to make the world more accessible – whether you are designing the next big AI service or are interested in making our computers work faster. Please reach out if you design technology and would like to identify how you can help make the world more accessible.

I will be recruiting students in the upcoming admission cycle. Please reach out if you are interested to work with me to make the world more accessible. I am looking forward to building a team of researchers eager to use a mix of ethnographic, qualitative, and data-driven methods to investigate accessibility barriers and opportunities posed by quickly adopted technology such as generative AI. I care immensely about deploying research to the real-world and I anticipate my team to care as well. More specifics coming soon! Please do your best to make any material you will be sending to me screen reader accessible. This includes, but is not limited to adding alternative text to images, and ensuring that documents such as CVs have a proper reading order. Please read below to learn about the general nature of contributions I get excited about.

New Interaction Techniques for Nonvisual Programming

Real-World Systems to Improve Developer Tools

CodeWalk, a set of features that we developed to make collaborative programming activities inclusive to BVI developers has been released as a set of features in VS Code LiveShare. This video segment highlights this feature:

This microsoft learn article details our audio design.

Prior to starting at UW, I was a Research Fellow at Microsoft Research(MSR) India and was advised by Dr. Manohar Swaminathan. At MSR India, my work improved developer productivity for BVI developers in GUI based programming environments, and proposed recommendations to improve accessibility of ATM cash transactions for BVI users in India.

My journey starts with a B.Tech HONS and MS by Research (dual degree) from International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad where I was advised by Dr. Kishore S Prahallad and Dr. Priyanka Srivastava on my thesis on Audio Rendering of Mathematical Content. There is lots to know about me here. When we meet (in person or over a skype call), lets brainstorm on the next big opportunity to improve accessibility and make the world a more inclusive place.

Why accessibility?

Here is my TEDxYouth talk describing my early journey and the wonderful support system I am fortunate to have.

Due to my blindness, I adapted various methods for learning and independent daily living. Given my exposure to a variety of Accessibility Technology (AT) since early childhood, I came to believe that technology, when built with the right intent, can empower anybody and impact lives in positive ways. AT has undoubtedly had a great impact on mine. This independence that technology could offer was instrumental for me to pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in Computer Science with research focused on improving accessibility.

Important Updates

  • I joined the School of Information, University of Michigan as an Assistant Professor!
  • I will be interning for summer 2020 with the ability team at Microsoft Research!
  • I have been awarded the Google Lime Scholarship for the year 2019! Extremely greatful for the fellowship, and humbled by learning about all the work that the other scholars were doing. Check out this Allen School news article.
  • CodeTalk is now open source! Click here for more information.
  • My thoughts on accessibility research have been published in a Microsoft news article on the International Day for Persons with Disabilities.