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IN PLAIN SITE A TECH GRADUATE FOCUSED ON MAKING DISCOVERY CHANNEL’S ONLINE COOKING SITE EASY ON THE EYES Anil Chalasani knows better than most, that cook-
are 12 different categories of visual disabilities,”
ing and baking have become an obsession for many
explains Chalasani, who has been teaching his col-
during the isolation of this pandemic. Chalasani does
leagues the technology, which he learned before he
not bake endless loaves of banana bread like so many
went to work for Discovery 18 months ago. “Some
other Americans who are hungry for human contact.
people can’t see blue or red, others see only black
But he does make it much easier for them to do so.
and white. My intent is to help them fully enjoy ev-
Chalasani is a User Interface Experience Designer at
erything the site has to offer.”
the Discovery Channel. In plain English, the impressive
The road to web designing and to graduate school
title means that he and his team have been working
at Touro College was a rough one. Chalasani had
on innovative ways to modernize Discovery’s online
come to San Francisco from India to attend art
cooking site. The mission was to take its circa 1990s
school after he was sponsored by his elder brother,
technology from confusing and clunky and make it an
Manju. Shortly thereafter, Manju was killed in a mo-
easy, intuitive place to find and follow recipes.
torcycle accident. While grieving for his brother, he
“As the pandemic started, lots of people wanted to
lost his sponsorship and financial aid, and believed
cook and they desperately needed recipes and a
it was his duty to return to India to care for his par-
good site to find them on,” says Chalasani, 32, based
ents. A friend told him about Touro. By then, Chala-
in Knoxville. “We wanted to make it fun, as well as
sani knew he wanted to concentrate on web design.
functional.”
With his parents’ blessing, Chalasani applied and
To accomplish those goals, Chalasani determined
was accepted to the Touro Graduate School of
that he and his team had to make the website much
Technology, from which he graduated from the Web
more user-friendly, in this case, specifically for
and Multimedia Design program in 2017. “Going to
those who are visually disabled due to everything
Touro was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,”
from cataracts to color blindness. Employing Col-
says Chalasani, whose avocations include oil paint-
or Brightness Technology, which was not around in
ing and nature photography. “Today, I’m working at
the ‘90s, Chalasani has been doing just that. “There
something I love and helping people in the process. That is very exciting and rewarding for me.”
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