Laura Thomson has this new post on her blog today with a few thoughts about "accessibility, adaptivity, device independence".

I am working on a new protocol in my research which needs to take these issues into account and I am gradually thinking my way around to the best way to do it (hopefully).

Accessibility refers to the ability [of web content] to be accessed by everyone, regardless of their abilities or the device they are using. [...] I talked to Liddy Nevile recently about accessibility and she says it is turning into adaptivity instead...that is, sensitivity to the user and their capabilities at a moment in time.

I would, rather than thinking of devices and users separately, probably think of a unified approach, where we think of the user as having a set of capabilities, just like a Palm...

I like how she's approaching it from a bit of a different angle, thinking of the users and devices together as "endpoints" to the communications of information...