Hazel hits the heights at Holyrood by scooping national IT award
11 July 2018
An Aberdeen City Council worker has been named as the nation’s Rising Star in public sector IT by winning a prestigious award at the 2018 Connect ICT Awards.
Hazel Lynch, who is an Education Support Officer specialising in Assistive Technology, beat off strong competition in the Rising Star category and came up tops at the Holyrood awards ceremony for her Accessibility for All project.
Hazel, who is passionate about ensuring that all children can access learning and, as the lead officer for accessibility through digital technology, she has transformed the lives of hundreds of pupils across Aberdeen schools
Hazel has worked tirelessly to train and support staff and pupils across the city. As part of her rollout of accessibility tools she not only trained lead staff for every school, she also trained lead pupils. This saw exceptional adoption of the services across council schools in Aberdeen.
Modest Hazel, whose work has been hailed as exemplary by Google, said: “This award is for all of the Aberdeen City schools that have embraced the new technology and for the young people who, as mentors, have led the learning for their peers and for staff in their own school.
“Accessibility is so important in our daily living, in our learning and in our work. We have delivered on ensuring all our devices accessed by young people at school and at home in Aberdeen city are equipped with the latest digital accessibility tools.”
Councillor John Wheeler, Education Operational Delivery Convener, said: “Many congratulations to Hazel not only for well-deserved national recognition but also for the absolutely fantastic work she has done in helping transform digital learning across our schools. She really is a rising star and we are very proud to have her on board with us.”
Hazel added: “I am honoured to accept this award and thank the Holyrood Connect judging panel for putting 'digital accessibility' in the spotlight."