Accessibility and inclusivity of design research heritage

Archives preserve the memory of our cultural background, providing considerable amounts of data from which the new generations will be able to draw from to continue producing research. The digitalization of the archives, made by technological progress, has allowed access to the information, leading scholars and others, to a greater knowledge of what is happening in other contexts thus favouring openness to new study perspectives, also in the world of design. The difference between a physical and a digital archive lies mainly in the lack of a physical subject that acts as a link between the researcher and the data he is looking for. One of the most frequent problems encountered during navigation within these archives is that of relating to the enormous amount of information present, their organization and cataloguing and, in particular, the interface with which they are presented. Digitizing an archive does not only mean carrying out a technical operation, but user experience must also be taken into account in order to facilitate its use and make navigation pleasant, even from an aesthetic point of view. In this article, after examining the structure and accessibility of the websites of the Italian design schools that host these archives, we will expose a possible design aimed at making the browsing experience pleasant regardless of the ability to use the access technology and/or disabilities that could characterize users.