Accessibility-first: Championing product inclusion at Freshworks
Srinivasu Chakravarthula has dedicated his life to building accessible product experiences. After two decades of helping organizations build accessibility practices, he joined Freshworks in July 2022 as director of accessibility to make product inclusion a priority.
“My role at Freshworks is to help product teams build accessible experiences for all users, including people with disabilities,” he says. "Accessibility is not just for people with disabilities. Inclusive products drive value and improve usability for everyone."
On an average day, he guides different teams and answers questions about empathy and inclusive experiences.
Leading with the principle of inclusion
“I have lived a full life,” says Srinivasu. Born and raised in the tiny hamlet of Injaram in Andhra Pradesh, India, he started his career with a garment export company.
He moved around different cities to set up one of India’s first computer literacy programs for people with visual impairments. After leading quality assurance for various product and service organizations, the lack of disability awareness among the general population pained him.
Disability manifests in different ways.
“Some disabilities are situational, like reaching late at a venue because of traffic or not finishing your work on time because of computer failures. Others are functional, which include visual and mobility impairments, deafness, and learning disabilities,” he says. “In India alone, there are seventy million people with disabilities, but the awareness is very low. As a person with low vision, I knew I had to do my part in making accessibility a necessity and not a luxury.”
Luckily, he has always been a fan of technology. “Technology, by its very nature, is meant to assist. From screen readers and magnifiers to refreshable braille displays and voice recognition software, assistive technology can help people with disabilities enter the mainstream of society,” he says.
According to Srinivasu, the “intent to be inclusive” is what sets great companies apart from the rest. “Many people create inaccessible technology because they don’t know better. My job is to see how to move the needle on awareness and help them understand how to create inclusive experiences for everyone. Our leadership team at Freshworks is always open to my ideas, which gives me great joy,” he adds.
Srinivasu’s motto in life is “learn, empower, and repeat.”
“Accessibility is a life-long journey where product compliance is only the starting point,” he says. “The real value is what you offer on top of just meeting requirements because that shows you care.”
His current focus is on customer support. As a domain notorious for its grunt work, strict deadlines, and agent burnout, he believes accessibility will add value to customers and agents alike.
“The customer support domain has been untouched by the ease that accessibility brings. I have witnessed how accessibility brings innovation. That’s why I want to take up this opportunity and show how inclusive products can help make faster decisions and make lives easier for all of us,” he says.
Srinivasu is part of the NASSCOM Foundation, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) India, and has served on the board of the National Association for the Blind, Karnataka. He has also received multiple awards for his work on universal and inclusive design.
When he’s not helping folks learn the ropes about accessibility and inclusive product design, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends, swimming, listening to Carnatic classical music and spiritual lessons on Dharma, which in Hinduism refers to an individual’s duty to law, ethics, and life.
