Can industrial heritage be both nostalgic and inclusive? The DATIS project partners and members of the Slovenian blind and partially sighted community set out to find out. On 10 October 2025, they visited three sites in Ajdovščina — Jochmann’s Mill, Fructal and Mlinotest — to test how well visitors with visual impairments can explore the Industrial Heritage of Ajdovščina exhibition, both on site and through its digital portal ida-ajdovscina.si.
The field visit, supported by Beletrina’s accessibility experts, revealed a mix of strengths and challenges. The exhibition’s stories are engaging and the audio descriptions well-structured, allowing partially sighted visitors to follow along with ease. Yet for blind users, key barriers remain: screen readers could not detect or control the audio guides, as the play buttons lacked accessible labels. In the words of one participant: “I know the site tells a story, but the screen reader can’t hear it.” Image descriptions were also often missing, links were ambiguously named, and the heading structure was inconsistent. The text contrast was too low as well, making it difficult for partially sighted users to read on mobile devices or when zoomed in.
Physical accessibility also played a role. Even small design choices had a large impact on independence. Information boards placed on grass instead of on the pavement made the ground uneven and unstable, especially in wet conditions, limiting access for wheelchair users, cane users and prams. Without tactile routes leading to the boards or tactile markers indicating the QR code’s position, blind visitors had no cue that a board was nearby or where to find the code by touch.
Despite these obstacles, participants valued the exhibition’s content and potential. Their feedback shows that accessibility is not a distant ideal but a practical goal achievable through small, precise improvements such as clearer labels, consistent hierarchy, stronger contrast and better audio integration.
Findings from Ajdovščina, together with 100 tourism website audits and a cross-border survey conducted under the DATIS project, will feed into new guidelines and training for tourism providers in Slovenia and Italy. The upcoming DATIS portal will further support this goal by centralising accessibility information across the region.
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