Venkatesh Potluri is building a more equitable and accessible future

How do we create a more accessible world? 

For University of Michigan School of Information assistant professor Venkatesh Potluri, it starts with a fundamental approach: innovation should be led by the experiences and expertise of disabled people, not just designed for them. 

“Whether it’s opening a door or reading an email,” he says, “disability intersects with every part of our lives.” 

With the rise of artificial intelligence, and increased dependency on technology in every sector of our lives, Potluri is working on reducing accessibility barriers experienced by people who are blind or visually impaired. 

Potluri’s projects have led to real-world impact and contributed to improved developer tools and techniques that address access barriers. In his recent work, he led a large-scale analysis of accessibility issues in Jupyter Notebooks, published in the paper “Notably Inaccessible -- Data Driven Understanding of Data Science Notebook (In)Accessibility.” Informed by this analysis, his team built MatplotAlt, a python package to add image descriptions to plots that are generated in these notebooks.

He also developed CodeWalk, a system designed to support blind and visually impaired programmers, which has since been deployed in Microsoft’s Live Share for Visual Studio Code.

“To me, impact means not just writing papers but ensuring that the ideas behind those papers reach real users, especially those who don’t typically engage with academic research,” Potluri says. “That’s not an easy thing to achieve in research, but it’s something I’m deeply passionate about.” 

To build on this commitment, Potluri launched IDEA Lab (Intelligent Developer Experiences for Accessibility) at U-M. The lab ensures that both the technologies people use, and the tools that are used to create those technologies, are accessible to people with disabilities. Its mission is rooted in the belief that all computing is human-facing at its core. 

Yet too often, digital technologies exclude people with variations in ability. This exclusion can only be prevented if we have experts with disabilities at the forefront of innovation. “Who counts as a programmer? What counts as ‘programming’? How do we ensure that paradigm shifts in programming such as the one we are seeing now with generative AI are not just accessible, but unlock new opportunities for disability-led innovation?” 

Potluri hopes to answer these critical questions with real-world impact and academic rigor as focal points with his Ph.D. students Veronica Pimenova (co-advised with Dhruv Jain), Ellie Seehorn (co-advised with Anhong Guo) and his growing team of masters students and research assistants.

Born and raised in India, Potluri says he experienced “several accessibility challenges, particularly in education.” Despite this, he’s grateful for his family and the educators who fought battles on his behalf and equipped him with the skills to fight his own. These experiences inspired him to pursue a joint bachelor’s and master’s degree in Computer Science at the International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIIT) in India. 

“At some point, I realized the transformative power of accessibility technology, not just for me, but for those around me,” Potluri says. “That realization led me to pursue computer science, where I felt I could make the greatest impact in creating a more accessible world.” 

After graduating from IIIT, Potluri completed his PhD at the Paul G. Allen School for Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. 

At UMSI, Potluri is thinking about how artificial intelligence impacts people with disabilities through a strength based approach that puts people with disabilities at the forefront of how AI interacts with them, and the world. 

“What does an accessibility-first AI experience look like?” Potluri asks. “How can we ensure people use it thoughtfully? I don’t want to see a world where these advancements benefit only some, leaving users with disabilities behind. The perceived gap could widen even further. It might lead to a situation where people think, ‘Oh, you’re not productive because you can’t use AI.’ Or worse: ‘You could use AI in theory, but the AI wasn’t designed in a way that makes it useful for you.’”

Potluri says working in accessibility can sometimes be difficult, especially because the onus of advocating for accessibility can often rely on one person’s passion. In his current teaching, Potluri encourages his students to become “effective champions for accessibility.” 

“I tell my students, when you’re in a position of power, I hope you’ll hire people who are most impacted by the work you’re doing, and ensure that disabled users are included,’” he says. 

Aside from this, Potluri, inspired by the mentors who’ve supported and encouraged him in the past, is opening doors for his students to think critically and creatively. In his most successful students, he sees an ability to identify their joy and purpose and pursue that. 

“I believe the best research happens when you find joy, purpose and energy in your work,” he says. “My hope is to create an environment where my students can discover that for themselves.” 

Potluri joined UMSI in August 2024. Since then, he’s enjoyed the “incredible ecosystem” of researchers like Robin Brewer, Anhong Guo, Steve Oney, Sile O’Modhrain and others who work in the field of accessibility and computing. 

“Being here has been intellectually enriching and fulfilling,” Potluri says. “I feel fortunate to work in a place where I can thrive, surrounded by such a dynamic community. It’s inspiring to see how the department fosters individual research pockets while also encouraging collaboration and growth.”

Potluri continues to work toward building a world where disability justice principles are embedded in the future of technology. 

“I’m building tools and conducting research that equips disabled people to gain the skills and support they need to be in positions of power and do amazing things,” he says. “I’m hoping for a more equitable and accessible future.” 

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Learn more about Venkatesh Potluri by visiting his UMSI faculty profile and his personal website. 

Discover more researchers at UMSI who are working on accessibility and computing.