Interview with Bob Regan, Senior PM of Accessibility, Macromedia

Bob Regan is Senior Product Manager of Accessibility at Macromedia, responsible for ensuring compliance with Accessibiliy and Disability legislation in Dreamweaver, Flash and all other Macromedia Products. DMXzone's Bruce Lawson caught up with him in London last night (Sept 4th 2003) and asked him about his job, the forthcoming MX 2004 family of products, and Gollum.

Such modesty! Is there any danger of your being corrupted by this power, and ending up like Darth Vader or Gollum?

Oh, I really, really hope I get a cool costume, though I may end up more like a Muppet than something truly awe inspiring. More Beeker, less Darth Maul. Seriously, I think there is a real danger of taking things for granted. My biggest fear is that someone will say, "Hey this accessibility thing is finished, right? Didn't we take care of that 2 years ago?" Just as technology is never "fully baked', accessibility has to grow and change with the field. It is something we can never declare as finished.

Like all of us, your professional future depends on the web economy. Whilst rumours of the death of the web have been greatly exaggerated, is there any upturn ahead that you/ Macromedia can see?

Absolutely. I think we are seeing an amazing transformation of the browser on the horizon. Internet access via the phone and handheld devices is a very poor experience today. While I still use it to see how my baseball team is doing, I would never use it to check email or do actual research - yet. I think this will change. I spent a day in Hungary with colleagues at the WWW2003 conference looking at the overlap between accessibility and device independence of design. The implications were quite interesting. As we gain a better understanding of the transfer of design from the desktop to a world of devices, I think we will see this change. Everyone I know has a wireless phone. I think people are demanding the ability to do more than download ring-tones. From an accessibility standpoint, the implications are fantastic. Being able to access the full power of the web from a handheld and to do so accessibly could provide a level of independence to folks we have not previously seen.

Do you think it's possible for every site to be accessible? Is it possible for superbad.com or Praystation or even a porn site to be accessible to the blind?

The web is still a primarily visual media. I think Praystation is an interesting example. Josh Davis has done some great work with sound that blind visitors to the site might find really compelling. Yet I think it would be a great loss to the world if Josh Davis were somehow limited from specific forms of visual expression in the name of accessibility. At the same time, I would love to see what Josh would do with a project specifically designed for non-visual expression. Right now, this means sound only. There are some cool tactile devices out there, but they are not yet mainstream. 

People in the DMXzone community have asked us to ask you when we can see Dreamweaver spell-check alt text. Is it in MX 2004?

Nope. Feature request number 1 for the next version. Thanks.

Have you ever made a web site? What's the URL?

Are you kidding? This is like a public outing right? I have made sites in the past. I work on the Accessibility Resource Center at http://www.macromedia.com/uk/accessibility and my blog at http://www.macromedia.com/go/bobregan right now. My older, pre-Macromedia stuff is hopelessly out of date by now.

One day, all Macromedia tools will produce perfectly accessible sites. Then you'll have worked yourself out of a job. What will you do then?

Go back to my first love, painting ceramic pottery with playful images of kittens. Fortunately, I think there are enough challenges on the horizon to keep me plenty busy for a long time.

What question should we have asked you, but didn't?

What can DMXZone readers do to make the web a more accessible experience for all? 

And what's the answer?

More than anything, we need examples of inspiring designs that are accessible and engaging. I would love to hear from your readers if they have examples.

Contact us at wish-accessibility@macromedia.com.

Cats, or dogs?

2 Cats, a dog, two kids, a home office and a whole lot chaos.

The glass: half full, or half-empty?

It's half full and each of us is standing here with a pitcher of margaritas. Fill it up!

Thanks a million, Bob. For the interview, and the margaritas.

DMXzone has a free Accessibility FAQ by Bruce Lawson in addition to many $2 tutorials in the CSS, XHTML Accessibility and Web Standards tutorial section of DMXzone.com