Photographs of the Winners and Attendees 2008
Person of the Year Award Award
Winner: Jonathan Naess, Director, Stand to Reason
Sponsored by Royal Mail Group, presented by Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Rt Hon James Purnell MP)
Jonathan was nominated for his work in establishing Stand to Reason, an organisation set up to break down discrimination on mental health grounds. He encouraged the first ever national leader to speak openly about his experience of mental health problems (the former Norwegian Prime Minister), then created a form of viral campaign through which senior city bankers, lawyers and others ‘came out’ about their experiences of mental ill-health – and hit a nerve with the media.
Public Sector Award
Winner: NHS Highland/Highland Council
Sponsored by Office for Disability Issues, Presented by Mayor of London Boris Johnson
NHS Highland and Highland Council worked together to produce Love Is… a serious taboo-breaking programme - a public sector partnership that engaged people with learning disabilities in securing their human rights to personal relationships. Training in the new rights-based policy for staff in the local NHS, local authority - and every organization they contract with - is now mandatory. This ground-breaking user-led scheme is helping to end a history of denial of sexual and human rights for people with learning disabilities and provides a model of good practice for others to emulate.
Highly Commended: South West London and St. George's NHS Mental Health Trust (bottom) and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (top)
The judges were so overwhelmed with the quality of nominations in this category that very unusually they decided to highly commend 2 organisations: South West London and St. George's for breaking down the ‘them and us’ culture of health services - 31% of recruits to the most senior management and professional jobs have personal experience of mental health problems – and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service for their commitment and innovative thinking on reducing the risk of fire for people with every type of impairment or health condition.
Business Award
Winner: Lloyds TSB
Presented by Trevor Philips, Chair, Equality and Human Rights Commission
Lloyds TSB have integrated disability equality right across customer service and employment. They have gone way beyond welfare to work – and enabled disabled people to fully develop their careers. They have made reasonable adjustments for 3500 staff, run personal development courses that measurably improved performance and have significantly increased disabled people's participation in management grades. They have acted to make call centres, websites, bank statements (and more) accessible – and require their contractors to meet accessibility standards.
Media Award for Factual Programming
Winner: Britain's Missing Top Model (Love Productions for BBC Three)
Sponsored by Sky, presented by Joyce Ohaja, News Presenter, ITV News Channel
This is a bold series that challenged the usual aesthetics of disability within a popular format. It illuminated and discussed prejudices and focused on real life issues – like where to get decent clothes – and on how disabled women feel, not just what they can do.
Highly Commended: Blue Peter (Children's BBC) (top) and Care in the UK Season (BBC Radio 4) (bottom)
The judges would like to highly commend these two programmes: Blue Peter, a great example of CBBC's commitment to the ordinary inclusion of disability within children's TV, and BBC Radio 4's Care in the UK Season – a unified and informative series, which made an important topic accessible and influenced policy.
Media Award for Fictional Programming
Winner: Coming Down the Mountain (Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC 1)
Sponsored by Sky, presented by Matthew Goode (Starred as Charles Ryder in the recent film adaptation of Brideshead Revisited)
This film contains a compelling portrayal of sibling relationships – which was brilliantly illuminated by the experience of disability. The clever plot and outstanding performances, including one by Tommy Jessop, made a fantastic winner.
Highly Commended: Recovery (Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC 1)
This highly moving film, starring David Tennant, examined the relationship between a man recovering from total memory loss following an accident and his wife. The judges described the film as an awesome and moving piece of work with outstanding performances.
Disabled Entrepreneur Award
Winner: Albert Thomson, Founder of Action Amps (ACS Ltd.)
Presented by Sadaqat Ali, a member of the RADAR Leadership Programme
Albert took his experiences of injury in Iraq, followed by amputation, and turned them into a successful business, with amputees delivering realistic training simulations to the emergency services and the military in responding to crisis situations.
Young Person's Award
Winner: Ben Fletcher
Presented by Kelly Knox, Winner of Britain's Missing Top Model, Jonathan Phang, Models' Mentor on Britain's Missing Top Model, and Marie O'Riordan, Editor of Marie Claire
Ben is one of IBM's youngest ever master inventors. At 27 he already has 20 patents. His personal experience of Ushers syndrome informs both his ground-breaking work on IT accessibility and his belief that diversity and inclusion make for greater creativity and innovation at work
Highly Commended: Nathan Giles
The judges have highly commended Nathan Giles, who at the age of 12 researched children's rights and used his findings to influence the UN and UK Government. This young man has already amassed a great deal of campaigning experience and we look forward to seeing much more of him in the future.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Winner: Sue Maynard Campbell (deceased)
Presented by Edward Stourton
Sue was nominated independently by a number of different people. She put her legal and organizational skills quietly at the disposal of countless disability groups and individuals, supporting new organizations to grow and develop, setting up successful companies and campaigns and influencing major businesses to develop their accessibility. She campaigned on issues from the right to life to equal access to health services – and through persistence she succeeded. Sadly she died earlier this year and is sorely missed by all who knew her in the disability movement. Her award was collected by her sister, Alice Maynard.
