Winners of eWell-Being awards show off their prizes

The Samaritans, AbilityNET and RNID have each won an award at this year’s eWell-Being awards.

The awards, which are in their fifth year, commend projects that identify and promote the benefits of information and communication technologies (ICT).

At the event which took place last week, AbilityNet was presented with the Age and Disability award which focuses on access and services for elderly and disabled people.

This was as a result of the company’s remote assessment across broadband scheme. This allows the company to assess and determine an individual's technology requirements remotely using webcams and the telephone. This allows the charity to help far more people than would be possible if assessments had to be face-to-face.

To use the scheme people must download a special desktop streaming software from AbilityNet.

The Samaritans was presented with a special award for ‘Making a Difference’ for its confidential emotional support email service. To speak to someone, users email a generic address which then allows them to begin a conversation with a trained volunteer.

RNID, the charity for the deaf and hard of hearing, also announced that it had been given the SustainIT award for its TalkByText software. The software is claimed to be a modern replacement for analogue textphones, known as "minicoms".

It allows those with visual and hearing impairments to make and receive textphone calls from a PC and send and receive SMS messages. Calls can be made to or from any textphone whether mobile or fixed either on the public telephone network or to another PC.

The eWell-Being Awards are sponsored by AOL, Brother, BT, the Department for Communities and Local Government, and the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA). 29 short-listed projects were chosen from a record 130 entries across six categories.