My work challenges the interpretation of independence, an often used outcome metric in HCI and Accessibility research as self-reliance and explores the effects of a broadened concept of independence on technology design. To this end, I employ qualitative and design research methods to 1) Demonstrate how social, cultural, political, and economic factors and technology-use contexts shape people’s ideas of independence 2) Examine how broadening designers’ conceptions of independence can result in accessible technologies that center the needs of people with visual impairments.

Pronouns

He/Him/His

Areas of Interest

Human-Computer Interaction 
Accessibility 
Information and Communication Technologies and Development

Honors and Awards

ACM CSCW 2018 - Best Paper Award 
ACM CHI 2018 - Honorable Mention

Education

M.S. in Information (University of Michigan - School of Information) 

Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science (M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology - Bangalore, India)