Publications

2025

Accessibility Heuristics for Vibe Coding Interfaces

Shalini Madan, Sreelakshmi Surabiyil, and Venkatesh Potluri

In Proceedings of the 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, Denver, CO, USA, 2025

Abs DOI Bib PDF

AI coding tools are transforming programming, shifting it from a highly editorial process into a conversational activity. Popular vibe coding tools such as Replit and Cursor integrate natural language interfaces with traditional development environments. While these tools promise simplicity, increased productivity, and automation, they also introduce new accessibility challenges for blind or visually impaired (BVI) developers. A systematic identification of these accessibility challenges necessitates comprehensive guidelines that account for the complex interactions in these tools. To address this need, we develop accessibility heuristics to assess the accessibility of AI conversational programming tools. Our heuristics combine web accessibility guidelines, best practices for designing conversational interfaces, and accessibility needs specific to BVI developers. Our evaluation of three widely used conversational programming tools shows that most accessibility challenges arise from complex keyboard interactions, poor focus management, and insufficient feedback and access to the various actions and outputs of the tools.
@inproceedings{Madan:2025:AccessibilityHeuristics, author = {Madan, Shalini and Surabiyil, Sreelakshmi and Potluri, Venkatesh}, title = {Accessibility Heuristics for Vibe Coding Interfaces}, year = {2025}, isbn = {979-8-4007-0676-9/2025/10}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3663547.3759729}, doi = {10.1145/3663547.3759729}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility}, numpages = {5}, keywords = {Heuristics, Developer Tools, AI Coding Assistants}, location = {Denver, CO, USA}, series = {ASSETS '25}, }
MatplotAlt: A Python Library for Adding Alt Text to Matplotlib Figures in Computational Notebooks

Kai Nylund, Jennifer Mankoff, and Venkatesh Potluri

Computer Graphics Forum, 2025

Abs DOI Bib Code Website

We present MatplotAlt, an open-source Python package for easily adding alternative text to Matplotlib figures. MatplotAlt equips Jupyter notebook authors to automatically generate and surface chart descriptions with a single line of code or command, and supports a range of options that allow users to customize the generation and display of captions based on their preferences and accessibility needs. Our evaluation indicates that MatplotAlt’s heuristic and LLM-based methods to generate alt text can create accurate long-form descriptions of both simple univariate and complex Matplotlib figures. We find that state-of-the-art LLMs still struggle with factual errors when describing charts, and improve the accuracy of our descriptions by prompting GPT4-turbo with heuristic-based alt text or data tables parsed from the Matplotlib figure.
@article{Knylund:2025:MatPlotAlt, author = {Nylund, Kai and Mankoff, Jennifer and Potluri, Venkatesh}, title = {MatplotAlt: A Python Library for Adding Alt Text to Matplotlib Figures in Computational Notebooks}, journal = {Computer Graphics Forum}, volume = {44}, number = {3}, pages = {e70119}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1111/cgf.70119}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cgf.70119}, eprint = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/cgf.70119}, year = {2025}, }

Demo of RAVEN: Realtime Accessibility in Virtual ENvironments for Blind and Low-Vision People

Xinyun Cao, Kexin Phyllis Ju, Chenglin Li, Venkatesh Potluri, and Dhruv Jain

2025

@article{caodemo,
  title = {Demo of RAVEN: Realtime Accessibility in Virtual ENvironments for Blind and Low-Vision People},
  author = {Cao, Xinyun and Ju, Kexin Phyllis and Li, Chenglin and Potluri, Venkatesh and Jain, Dhruv},
  year = {2025},
  publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

2024

Identifying and Improving Disability Bias in GAI-Based Resume Screening

Kate Glazko, Yusuf Mohammed, Ben Kosa, Venkatesh Potluri, and Jennifer Mankoff

arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.01732, 2024

arXiv Bib

@article{glazko2024identifying,
  title = {Identifying and Improving Disability Bias in {GAI}-Based Resume Screening},
  author = {Glazko, Kate and Mohammed, Yusuf and Kosa, Ben and Potluri, Venkatesh and Mankoff, Jennifer},
  journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.01732},
  year = {2024},
}

2023

An Autoethnographic Case Study of Generative Artificial Intelligence’s Utility for Accessibility

Kate S Glazko, Momona Yamagami, Aashaka Desai, Kelly Avery Mack, Venkatesh Potluri, and 2 more authors

In Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, , New York, NY, USA, , 2023

Abs DOI Bib

With the recent rapid rise in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) tools, it is imperative that we understand their impact on people with disabilities, both positive and negative. However, although we know that AI in general poses both risks and opportunities for people with disabilities, little is known specifically about GAI in particular. To address this, we conducted a three-month autoethnography of our use of GAI to meet personal and professional needs as a team of researchers with and without disabilities. Our findings demonstrate a wide variety of potential accessibility-related uses for GAI while also highlighting concerns around verifiability, training data, ableism, and false promises.
@inproceedings{Glazko:2023:GAIAutoEthno, author = {Glazko, Kate S and Yamagami, Momona and Desai, Aashaka and Mack, Kelly Avery and Potluri, Venkatesh and Xu, Xuhai and Mankoff, Jennifer}, title = {An Autoethnographic Case Study of Generative Artificial Intelligence's Utility for Accessibility}, year = {2023}, isbn = {9798400702204}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, doi = {10.1145/3597638.3614548}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility}, articleno = {99}, numpages = {8}, keywords = {ableism, accessibility, auto-ethnography, generative artificial intelligence}, location = {, New York, NY, USA, }, series = {ASSETS '23}, }

Notably Inaccessible – Data Driven Understanding of Data Science Notebook (In)Accessibility

Venkatesh Potluri^*, Sudheesh Singanamalla^*, Firn Tieanklin, and Jennifer Mankoff

In Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, New York, NY, USA, 2023

* Potluri and Singanamalla contributed equally to this work.

DOI arXiv Bib Code Website

@inproceedings{Potluri:2023:Notably-Inaccessible,
  author = {Potluri, Venkatesh and Singanamalla, Sudheesh and Tieanklin, Firn and Mankoff, Jennifer},
  title = {Notably Inaccessible – Data Driven Understanding of Data Science Notebook (In)Accessibility},
  year = {2023},
  isbn = {979-8-4007-0220-4/23/10},
  publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  address = {New York, NY, USA},
  doi = {10.1145/3597638.3608417},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility},
  location = {New York, NY, USA},
  series = {ASSETS '23},
  note = {* Potluri and Singanamalla contributed equally to this work.},
}

2022

Anticipate and Adjust: Cultivating Access in Human-Centered Methods

Kelly Mack, Emma McDonnell, Venkatesh Potluri, Maggie Xu, Jailyn Zabala, and 3 more authors

In Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, , 2022

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Methods are fundamental to doing research and can directly impact who is included in scientific advances. Given accessibility research’s increasing popularity and pervasive barriers to conducting and participating in research experienced by people with disabilities, it is critical to ask how methods are made accessible. Yet papers rarely describe their methods in detail. This paper reports on 17 interviews with accessibility experts about how they include both facilitators and participants with disabilities in popular user research methods. Our findings offer strategies for anticipating access needs while remaining flexible and responsive to unexpected access barriers. We emphasize the importance of considering accessibility at all stages of the research process, and contextualize access work in recent disability and accessibility literature. We explore how technology or processes could reflect a norm of accessibility. Finally, we discuss how various needs intersect and conflict and offer a practical structure for planning accessible research.
@inproceedings{mack2022anticipate, author = {Mack, Kelly and McDonnell, Emma and Potluri, Venkatesh and Xu, Maggie and Zabala, Jailyn and Bigham, Jeffrey and Mankoff, Jennifer and Bennett, Cynthia}, title = {Anticipate and Adjust: Cultivating Access in Human-Centered Methods}, year = {2022}, isbn = {9781450391573}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, doi = {10.1145/3491102.3501882}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems}, articleno = {603}, numpages = {18}, keywords = {user research, disability, accessibility, Human-Centered methods}, location = {}, series = {CHI '22}, }

CodeWalk: Facilitating Shared Awareness in Mixed-Ability Collaborative Software Development

Venkatesh Potluri^*, Maulishree Pandey^*, Andrew Begel, Michael Barnett, and Scott Reitherman

In Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, Athens, Greece, 2022

* Potluri and Pandey contributed equally to this work.

DOI Bib

@inproceedings{potluri:2022:CodeWalk,
  author = {Potluri, Venkatesh and Pandey, Maulishree and Begel, Andrew and Barnett, Michael and Reitherman, Scott},
  title = {{CodeWalk}: Facilitating Shared Awareness in Mixed-Ability Collaborative
                 Software Development},
  year = {2022},
  isbn = {9781450392587},
  publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  address = {New York, NY, USA},
  doi = {10.1145/3517428.3544812},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on
                 Computers and Accessibility},
  articleno = {20},
  numpages = {16},
  keywords = {blind or visually impaired, sound effects, collaboration,
                 accessibility, software developers, workspace awareness},
  location = {Athens, Greece},
  series = {ASSETS '22},
  note = {* Potluri and Pandey contributed equally to this work.},
}

PSST: Enabling Blind or Visually Impaired Developers to Author Sonifications of Streaming Sensor Data

Venkatesh Potluri, John Thompson, James Devine, Bongshin Lee, Nora Morsi, and 3 more authors

In Proceedings of the 35th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, Bend, OR, USA, 2022

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We present the first toolkit that equips blind and visually impaired (BVI) developers with the tools to create accessible data displays. Called PSST (Physical computing Streaming Sensor data Toolkit), it enables BVI developers to understand the data generated by sensors from a mouse to a micro:bit physical computing platform. By assuming visual abilities, earlier efforts to make physical computing accessible fail to address the need for BVI developers to access sensor data. PSST enables BVI developers to understand real-time, real-world sensor data by providing control over what should be displayed, as well as when to display and how to display sensor data. PSST supports filtering based on raw or calculated values, highlighting, and transformation of data. Output formats include tonal sonification, nonspeech audio files, speech, and SVGs for laser cutting. We validate PSST through a series of demonstrations and a user study with BVI developers.
@inproceedings{Potluri:2022:PSST, author = {Potluri, Venkatesh and Thompson, John and Devine, James and Lee, Bongshin and Morsi, Nora and De Halleux, Peli and Hodges, Steve and Mankoff, Jennifer}, title = {{PSST}: Enabling Blind or Visually Impaired Developers to Author Sonifications of Streaming Sensor Data}, year = {2022}, isbn = {9781450393201}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, doi = {10.1145/3526113.3545700}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 35th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology}, articleno = {46}, numpages = {13}, keywords = {Accessibility, Physical Computing, Toolkit, Blind or Visually Impaired (BVI) Programmers}, location = {Bend, OR, USA}, series = {UIST '22}, }

2021

Examining Visual Semantic Understanding in Blind and Low-Vision Technology Users

Venkatesh Potluri, Tad Grindeland, Jon E. Froehlich, and Jennifer Mankoff

In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Yokohama, Japan, 2021

DOI Bib

@inproceedings{Potluri:CHI2021:EVS,
  author = {Potluri, Venkatesh and Grindeland, Tad and Froehlich, Jon E. and Mankoff, Jennifer},
  title = {Examining Visual Semantic Understanding in Blind and Low-Vision
                      Technology Users},
  booktitleshort = {Proceedings of CHI 2021},
  year = {2021},
  isbn = {9781450380966},
  publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  address = {New York, NY, USA},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing
                      Systems},
  numpages = {14},
  location = {Yokohama, Japan},
  doi = {10.1145/3411764.3445040},
  series = {CHI '21},
}

2020

Navigating Graduate School with a Disability

Dhruv Jain, Venkatesh Potluri, and Ather Sharif

In The 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, Virtual Event, Greece, 2020

Abs DOI Bib

In graduate school, people with disabilities use disability accommodations to learn, network, and do research. However, these accommodations, often scheduled ahead of time, may not work in many situations due to uncertainty and spontaneity of the graduate experience. Through a three-person autoethnography, we present a longitudinal account of our graduate school experiences as people with disabilities, highlighting nuances and tensions of situations when our requested accommodations did not work and the use of alternative coping strategies. We use retrospective journals and field notes to reveal the impact of our self-image, relationships, technologies, and infrastructure on our disabled experience. Using post-hoc reflection on our experiences, we then close with discussing personal and situated ways in which peers, faculty members, universities, and technology designers could improve the graduate school experiences of people with disabilities.
@inproceedings{Jain:2020:NavGrad, author = {Jain, Dhruv and Potluri, Venkatesh and Sharif, Ather}, title = {Navigating Graduate School with a Disability}, year = {2020}, isbn = {9781450371032}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, doi = {10.1145/3373625.3416986}, booktitle = {The 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility}, articleno = {8}, numpages = {11}, keywords = {engineering, accessible technology, mobility impaired, Autoethnography, graduate school, trio-ethnography, STEM, blind, accessibility, hard of hearing, computer science education}, location = {Virtual Event, Greece}, series = {ASSETS '20}, }

2019

A Multi-Modal Approach for Blind and Visually Impaired Developers to Edit Webpage Designs

Venkatesh Potluri, Liang He, Christine Chen, Jon E. Froehlich, and Jennifer Mankoff

In The 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 2019

DOI Bib

@inproceedings{Potluri:AMA:2019,
  author = {Potluri, Venkatesh and He, Liang and Chen, Christine and Froehlich, Jon E. and Mankoff, Jennifer},
  title = {A Multi-Modal Approach for Blind and Visually Impaired Developers to
                 Edit Webpage Designs},
  year = {2019},
  isbn = {9781450366762},
  publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  address = {New York, NY, USA},
  doi = {10.1145/3308561.3354626},
  booktitle = {The 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and
                 Accessibility},
  pages = {612–614},
  numpages = {3},
  keywords = {visual design, accessible programming, blind and visually impaired,
                 web},
  location = {Pittsburgh, PA, USA},
  series = {ASSETS '19},
}

2018

CodeTalk: Improving Programming Environment Accessibility for Visually Impaired Developers

Venkatesh Potluri, Priyan Vaithilingam, Suresh Iyengar, Y. Vidya, Manohar Swaminathan, and 1 more author

In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Montreal QC, Canada, 2018

DOI Bib

@inproceedings{potluri2018codetalk,
  author = {Potluri, Venkatesh and Vaithilingam, Priyan and Iyengar, Suresh and Vidya, Y. and Swaminathan, Manohar and Srinivasa, Gopal},
  title = {CodeTalk: Improving Programming Environment Accessibility for Visually
                 Impaired Developers},
  year = {2018},
  isbn = {9781450356206},
  publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  address = {New York, NY, USA},
  doi = {10.1145/3173574.3174192},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing
                 Systems},
  pages = {1–11},
  numpages = {11},
  keywords = {accessibility, programming environments, visually impaired, audio
                 debugging},
  location = {Montreal QC, Canada},
  series = {CHI '18},
}