Should we think about CSS media other than screen and print?

Question

Should we think about CSS media other than screen and print? http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/media.html#media-types

all
    Suitable for all devices. 
braille
    Intended for braille tactile feedback devices. 
embossed
    Intended for paged braille printers. 
handheld
    Intended for handheld devices (typically small screen, limited bandwidth). 
print
    Intended for paged material and for documents viewed on screen in print preview mode. Please consult the section on paged media for information about formatting issues that are specific to paged media. 
projection
    Intended for projected presentations, for example projectors. Please consult the section on paged media for information about formatting issues that are specific to paged media. 
screen
    Intended primarily for color computer screens. 
speech
    Intended for speech synthesizers. Note: CSS2 had a similar media type called 'aural' for this purpose. See the appendix on aural style sheets for details. 
tty
    Intended for media using a fixed-pitch character grid (such as teletypes, terminals, or portable devices with limited display capabilities). Authors should not use pixel units with the "tty" media type. 
tv
    Intended for television-type devices (low resolution, color, limited-scrollability screens, sound available). 

is there any practical benefit for other media items? or all others ( other than Screen and Print")

what are benefits to use other media types?

Answer 1

Well, if you support accessibility devices, speech and braille can be very useful very quickly. The majority of sites don't support these; you'd perhaps be better served by making an alternative text-only site that could display well in lynx, for example.

Answer 2

It depends on the audience you are targeting. In general screen and print are sufficient.

Answer 3

If you are trying to build a highly accessible web site, it might be worth it to implement media types that aren't commonly used in order to potentially support future devices.

Presentation media would be pretty cool if it was supported, though. tv is supposed to be supported by devices like Boxee or the PS3, but the only one I've ever heard of supporting it is the Wii.

For 99% of the cases, don't waste your time.

Answer 4

Mobile devices using CSS3 media queries and "handheld" :)

I like the idea of being able to provide a viable alternative to mobile users; smartphone users (media queries related to screen size filter these) deserve attention as a rule.

Focus on information structure and content design become more important with the difference between the different representations.

I wonder to what extent "print" really is a good idea: should we encourage people to print content from the web? I can see the validity of this in a few cases, but not as a general rule.

Answer 5

For the average web developer, screen and print are probably the only ones to worry about.

Even the iPhone ignores the handheld media type:

iPhone OS ignores print and handheld media queries because these types do not supply high-end web content. Therefore, use the screen media type query for iPhone OS.

Source: Optimizing for Safari on iPhone

Most of the other media types target users with disabilities. Those users typically will have some kind of assistive technology for their computers (like a screen reader or magnifier), and it's really hard to know which ones they might be using and if they would also support the alternate stylesheets. Unless you're targeting these users specifically (and know what kinds of technologies they are using), it's probably better to stick with the de-facto standards.