Transforming the website experience for residents of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council

An Accessibility Audit and Usability Assessment in action

Invuse – the new name for Invotra Consulting – were appointed by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council to provide a full third party independent accessibility audit, incorporating a usability assessment, and a comprehensive outcomes report.

There were many challenges to overcome over the course of the project. Discover more about how Invuse supported the council in delivering:

  • A website that met 100% of the WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria
  • An understanding of the areas of the website already meeting WCAG 2.1 AAA standards, so that these could be reused across the website
  • The identification, resolution and testing of the accessibility failures within a two-month period, to avoid disruption of service to residents
  • A report detailing the outcomes of the audit was expected, so that failures could be corrected by the Council’s in-house team
“The project taken on by Invuse was a culmination of a great working relationship, professional insight and shared knowledge of WCAG regulations, a higher level understanding of accessibility and our responsibility towards our residents. The team at Invuse was helpful, friendly, available at any time and able to provide advice and resolutions throughout the project.”
Invuse Client Logo - Blackburn and Darwen Borough Council
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council
Website Team

The Challenges Invuse helped to overcome

  • Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council had begun to make great progress on the way to making their website more accessible. However, they knew that they could not fully meet the WCAG 2.1 AA requirements, due to a lack of resources and expertise in this area. 
  • The Council understood that, while they needed an audit to identify all possible accessibility fails, accessibility required a process of continual improvements. In order to create a site as accessible and usable by as many people as possible, they needed a partner who could provide advice on making all features accessible in the future. 
  • The Council did not have access to assistive technology to identify and address all accessibility failures. They required a third party to undertake desk-based research and testing with accessible users to highlight areas of issue. 
  • The Council were committed to using accessible software users in the audit, and to responding to their feedback. The audit also needed to include testing with all assistive technologies that the Council’s resources were unable to provide. Invuse provided this as part of its service. use