For Web content to be device independent, it should be possible for a user to obtain a functional presentation associated with its Web page identifier via any access mechanism.
The display of content, and any actions needed to interact with the content, should be device-independent. For example, the scripting events onclick and onkeypress are device-dependent: they can only be used by a mouse or keyboard respectively. However, the scripting events onfocus and onchange are device-independent, as it does not matter how the element is focused on or changed.
There are significant efforts to integrate Web technologies into various devices (e.g., mobile, TV sets) other than the traditional Web access equipment such as PCs. However, we are faced with the possibility that services for those devices may not interoperate with each other or with the existing Web. That would not only cause fragmentation of the Web space, but also make Web device independent authoring impossible. W3C has particular interests in device independent Web access and single authoring. The World Wide Web Consortium and its Members are well-positioned to lead developments to avoid incompatible solutions. The Consortium is working towards making the information of the World Wide Web accessible to various devices and achieving Web device independent authoring. The Device Independence Activity is newly created and merges the "Mobile Access Activity" and "TV and the Web Activity" to facilitate interchange in the interest of device independent Web access and authoring. This new Activity is not added to the Mobile nor the TV & the Web Activity, but rather, replaces them.
The use of a webpage or event handler with any kind of input device. Scripting should be device-independent or provide multiple input and output options for different devices. For example, onDblClick requires a mouse; there is no keyboard equivalent for double clicking. Input devices may include pointing devices (such as the mouse), keyboards, Braille devices, head wands, microphones, and others.
The operational mode of many graphics and word-processing packages, which do not produce their output in a form which can be sent to any output device (such as a plotter or printer), but which contains all the necessary information from which a device driver can generate the required output on information from which a device driver can generate the required output on a particular device.
For printing, device independence refers to the ability of a device to print an electronic file on a wide variety of devices low resolution or high resolution, black & white or color – and yet print to the best ability of any one of them. PostScript is device independent. A PostScript job may be printed on a black & white laser printer or inkjet color proofer, films may be output on an imagesetter, plates may be output on a platesetter, or the job may even be imaged on a digital press. All of this is possible as long as the file is PostScript, and all the devices are PostScript-compatible.
The concept that software components don't directly control hardware devices. Device- independent software controls hardware by manipulating objects that abstract and expose the functionality of a class of hardware devices.
The ability of a computer program to perform the same way regardless of the type of device used to run or access the program. SQL*Forms achieves device independence through the use of CRT files.
Device Independence is making the web accessible by any device under any circumstance and by all people. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has initiated the Device Independence Working Group whose aim is for a unified web which is accessible from many types of devices. Its mission is to avoid the breaking up of the web into spaces which only subsets of devices can access.