[4] His research interests are primarily in the areas of auditory user interfaces and structured electronic documents.

[7][8] Raman became blind at the age of 14 due to glaucoma,[5][9][10] being previously partially sighted[7] and able to see with his left eye.

[11] 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,[5][12][13] write computer programs, and perform mathematics.

[16] Raman went on to apply the ideas on audio formatting introduced in AsTeR to the more general domain of computer interfaces Emacspeak.