In recent months, 100 tourism websites from Italy and Slovenia were assessed for accessibility as part of the DATIS project. The sample included accommodations, wineries, restaurants, nature parks, museums, art galleries, and other tourism-related service providers.
Since accessibility improves SEO, booking conversions, customer trust, and inclusive hospitality, and hence its benefits go far beyond legal requirements, this assessment was essential to understanding the real state of digital inclusion in the cross-border tourism sector.
The standard for digital accessibility is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which require a website (or digital product) to meet Level AA criteria to be considered accessible. The average accessibility scores in both countries were low: 40% in Italy and 37% in Slovenia. This means most websites still can’t be used properly by people with disabilities, despite existing laws and regulations.
Mobile responsiveness and correct language tagging, implemented on over 85% of websites in both countries, stand out as technical strengths.
However, only 2% of websites included appropriate image descriptions (ALT text) which are a critical feature for blind users and helpful for users with slower internet connections.
Only 5% of websites included captions on videos, which are needed for deaf and hard-of-hearing users to access audio-visual content.
Less than 10% of websites provided basic navigation aids like sitemaps and “skip to content” links, which are especially important for users with screen readers and keyboard-only users.
And the good news? Most issues are low-cost and easy to fix, such as ALT text, contrast improvements, and keyboard compatibility.
As part of the DATIS project, an accessibility workshop will be offered to website owners in both Italy and Slovenia.
If you’re a tourism provider or stakeholder interested in attending, follow us on social media for updates:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/datis_interreg/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/datisinterreg
- X (Twitter): https://x.com/datis_interreg
