Touring a bourbon distillery is an interactive way to get up close and personal with one of Kentucky's signature industries, maker's Mark distillery.

And Marion County is making sure those who are deaf and hard of hearing or have vision impairments don't miss out on the experience.

Our Mackenzie Spink has more on how the distillery is making bourbon accessible to anyone who wants a taste, and you add your ingredients at different times and at different temperatures.

All of a sudden, each ingredient has its own kind of nuance to it.

So we start with our corn.

From the history of the brand to the sights and smells of the distilling process.

The ASL interpreted tours at maker's Mark distillery provides deaf and hard of hearing guests with the same interactive hour and a half as any other visitors touring on campus.

It's nice to be able to do everything, everybody out there and not have to have somebody explain it later or give you the CliffsNotes version, or tell you to read the brochure, to be able to actually come and experience the tour just like everybody else.

It's wonderful.

And that applies to everything.

We're not asking for more.

We just asked for the same.

Trevor Boles, the VIP experience and engagement manager, developed accessible experiences like the ASL interpreted tours.

After recognizing the need in the tourism industry and hearing from guests with disabilities looking for better options.

Growing up in the deaf community, it was always kind of important for me to make sure that different communities could be like, seen and celebrated and that, you know, bourbon's for everybody.

And so it's actually our responsibility as a company to kind of help with those access points.

General manager Kim Harman says that she has family members in the deaf and hard of hearing community, and that accessibility at maker's Mark is a point of pride for her and her staff.

Our people, they work so hard to not only accommodate, but they're passionate about it themselves.

We strive to be inclusive.

We worked very hard at that.

And then how did how did this get left out along the way?

So for me, it was just eye opening.

It was emotional.

I mean, why would we want to limit anyone from enjoying maker's Mark?

Tom Sager and his sister reached out to maker's Mark about a tour for blind guests, and from there Boles created a sensory based tour for them.

Since then, maker's Mark has hosted other visually impaired guests and even developed a Braille labeled bottle through the American Printing House for the blind, which is based in Louisville.

This is my second time doing the the Deluxe Tour with Trevor.

The really cool thing is the Trevor and Maker's Mark had have made a point to make it accessible.

And for me, being that I have no vision, otherwise I would just be walking through with a crowd of other people.

Trevor makes makes the effort to allow me to touch things and listen to things and smell things and just all those other.

There's so many sensory factors coming at you for this tour.

Paul says it took a lot of research to create this tour, and that he's refined it along the way, using feedback from the American Printing house for the blind.

You know, is it best to be able to say when the texture of the ground is changing, notifying how many steps or stairs?

If there are then looking at each point of our tour, and how can we elevate the sensory to it?

There's actually a lot of sensory touchpoints all around the distillery that were available.

Sometimes I think people feel things are just better off left alone.

But you know, when we asked about it, Robert in Mississippi, he jumped right out and said, yeah, let me see what I can do.

And that's just really cool that that, you know, he took the time to kind of put himself in my shoes.

Maker's Mark staff also received training from ASL interpreters and members of the deaf and hard of hearing community on deaf culture and how to use an interpreter for Kentucky Edition.

I'm McKenzie Spink, and I'd like to thank you, McKenzie, for that great story.

According to a 2023 American Community Survey, over 800,000 Kentuckians have a disability.