T. V. Raman
T. V. Raman is a blind computer scientist.[1] His accessibility research interests are primarily auditory user interfaces and structured electronic documents. He has worked on speech interaction and markup technologies in the context of the World Wide Web at Digital's Cambridge Research Lab (CRL), Adobe Systems and IBM Research.[2] He presently works at Google Research.[2][3]
Biography
He was born and raised in Pune, India.[4]
Raman became blind at the age of 14 due to glaucoma,[2][5][6] being previously partially sighted[4] and able to see with his left eye.[7] To deal with his blindness he had his brother, his mentors, and his aide read out textbooks and problems to him. Although unable to see, he was able to solve Rubik's Cube with a braille version,[2][8] [9][10] write computer programs, and perform mathematics.[7][11][12]
Raman attended the University of Pune with a BA in mathematics, IIT Bombay with a MSc in computer science, and Cornell University earning a MS in computer science and a PhD in applied mathematics. His PhD thesis entitled Audio System For Technical Readings (AsTeR) was awarded the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award[13] in 1994.
Raman went on to apply the ideas on audio formatting introduced in AsTeR to the more general domain of computer interfaces Emacspeak. On April 12, 1999, Emacspeak became part of the Smithsonian's Permanent Research Collection on Information Technology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. In 2005 he began work at Google.[2]
Work
- AsTeR -- Audio System For Technical Readings
- Aural CSS -- producing rich auditory presentations from Web content
- Emacspeak -- the complete audio desktop
- XForms -- Next Generation Web Forms
- XML Events -- A reusable eventing syntax for XML
- XHTML+Voice -- Enabling the multimodal Web via voice interaction
- RDC -- Reusable Dialog Components
- AxsJAX -- Access Enabling AJAX
- Google Accessible Search -- for finding accessible Web content
- Thinking Of Mathematics -- Thinking Of Mathematics—An Essay on Eyes-Free Computing
- Eyes-Free -- Speech enabled Google Android applications.
Selected Awards and Honors
- Computerworld Award Smithsonian Institution Emacspeak: Complete Audio Desktop. April 1999.
- Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Doctoral Dissertation Award 1994.
- Intel Graduate Fellowship Intel Corporation, CA 1992.
- Graduate Fellowship Cornell University. 1989.
- President’s Silver Medal Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. 1989.
- Sir Cusrow Wadia Gold Medal University of Pune. 1987.
- Sir Ness Wadia Gold Medal. 1984.
References
- ^ Gibbs, W.W. (1996) Profile: T. V. Raman – Envisioning Speech, Scientific American 275(3), 52-54.
- ^ a b c d e Helft, Miguel (January 3, 2009). "For the Blind, Technology Does What a Guide Dog Can't". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-01-05.
T. V. Raman was a bookish child who developed a love of math and puzzles at an early age. That passion didn't change after glaucoma took his eyesight at the age of 14. What changed is the role that technology — and his own innovations — played in helping him pursue his interests.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ " And you know, T.V. Raman, you know, research scientist at Google, who, he doesn't have the use of his sight... he's a completely fully productive programmer, more so than I am, because Emacs is his window to the world. It's his remote control. EmacsSpeak is his thesis. It's amazing to watch him work." http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/05/dynamic-languages-strike-back.html
- ^ a b "PCD Seminar 10/28/94 T.V. Raman". Stanford University. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
- ^ Guynn, Jessica (2006-07-19). "Google for the blind". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-11-14.
- ^ Raman, T. V. "DO-IT Mentor Profile". Retrieved 2007-11-14.
- ^ a b T. V. Raman (2007-05-25). "Thinking Of Mathematics—An Essay On Eyes-free Computing". Retrieved 2007-11-07.
- ^ "Cornell Alumni News Letter". Cornell University. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
- ^ "Solving a Braille Rubik's cube". YouTube. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
- ^ "Watch Blind Man Solve Rubik's Cube". Sky News. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
- ^ Osgood, Charles (1999-02-11). "Commentary: Computer software for the blind". The Osgood File. CBS. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
- ^ T. V. Raman (2007-05-19). "An Essay On Eyes-Free Computing". Retrieved 2007-11-07.
- ^ ACM citation: T. V. Raman