The Family Care Trust is ‘Highly Commended’ at Disability Smart Awards 2024
The Family Care Trust was highly commended at the Disability Smart Award 2024 for their work to improve the lives of disabled people. The Solihull based charity was highly commended in the Disability Smart Technology category at an awards ceremony in London on 30 April, hosted by Business Disability Forum and held in partnership with Bloomberg.
The Disability Smart Technology Award recognises organisations and individuals that have improved the life opportunities and experiences of disabled people, in the workplace, as consumers or in wider society through technology. This might be an innovative use of existing technology or through the development of a new digital or assistive technology product that has been created within the last 18 months.
The judging panel awarded The Family Care Trust highly commended status for their creation of an interactive Minecraft version of real-life Newlands Bishop Farm in Solihull. The farm provides work-based learning for adults with learning disabilities. Trainees can prepare for their visits using the virtual world.
In their feedback, the judging panel said:
“We loved how The Family Care Trust has worked with people with learning disabilities who use its services to bring their farm to life in the world of Minecraft, even down to the details of tagging the animals in Minecraft with the names of the animals in the physical farm, such as Winnie the pig. This virtual farm allows people to prepare for their real-life visits to the farm in a safe, online space, and has been developed by disabled people for disabled people.”
Now in their tenth year, Business Disability Forum’s annual Disability Smart Awards recognise organisations and individuals that are improving the life experiences of disabled employees and consumers by removing barriers to inclusion. The awards are a platform for sharing evidence and learnings from real life projects that have had a positive and tangible impact on disabled peoples’ lives. Awards were given across 10 categories this year.
[Insert quote from your organisation about what it means to be awarded Highly Commended]
Microsoft won the Technology category this year and Haleon was a finalist.
Diane Lightfoot, CEO of Business Disability Forum, said:
“I would like to congratulate all of the organisations who were recognised in the Disability Smart Awards this year. Their efforts and achievements are already significantly improving the life experiences of many disabled people, but I also hope their stories will provide real-life examples of ‘what works’ for all businesses to follow.”
Diane Lightfoot co-hosted the Disability Smart Awards ceremony with TV personality, Simon Minty. Simon is a long-standing Ambassador of Business Disability Forum as well as being a disability trainer and consultant.
Find out more about Disability Smart Awards 2024 on Business Disability Forum’s Disability Smart Awards 2024 page.
