Simply, ‘yes please!’ to the newly proposed Indie UI! See what their charter says (if it gets approved).

You see, this WG reminds me of the old Device Independence working group – which should never have lost its charter – and further dovetails into my view of Accessibility which is more about moving barriers to effective use – such that anyone can accomplish effect interactions regardless of, and not limited to impairment or disability. In reality it supports the ‘functional’ view of accessibility:

The mission of the Indie UI Working Group, part of the WAI Technical Activity, is to develop event models for Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that facilitate interaction in Web applications that are input method independent, and hence accessible to people with disabilities.

Indeed, Janina says (informally)…`I expect the specifications the Indie UI WG will create will greatly ease the task of creating web content that can effectively engage users on whatever device they might choose to use. The idea is to abstract user actions, zooming, checking boxes, etc., and let the device layer (rather than content authors) address how to capture those actions, be they indicated by mouse clicks, touch interfaces, speech, keyboard tabbing, etc., etc.’

This informal vision is key – just what is needed – indeed it supports my ego-centric view of accessibility as effective interaction:

Effective, adj. and n.
“a. Powerful in effect; producing a notable effect; effectual.”
OED – a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De
Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. xvii. lxxxiv.
974.

Why Not Just Accessibility? Well, you could conventionally think of this as accessibility. But, Accessibility has connotations of disability. I don’t hold with this – access/accessibility is much broader than disability. Effective = ability to produce an effect – regardless of how that ability does or does not exist.