Julie Howell, uber digital evangelist, wins a prestigious award from the New Media Age publication in recognition of her work around web accessibility.

She bagged the NMA's Greatest Individual Contribution Award last Thursday for her work in building awareness around web accessibility for visually impaired people, in her role as Digital Development Officer at the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB).

"If you make your services more available to a greater number of people, you have more access to the pot of money they want to spend online," says Howell, who advises companies on their legal duties under the DDA and the financial benefits of tapping into the 'disabled pound' - all 80 billion of it.

The award was presented to her by TV's Julian Clary at London's Grovenor House Hotel in front of a 1600 strong audience of top new media professionals.

Last year, a Disability Rights Commission (DRC) study showed that 81 per cent of all websites failed a test for the most basic of accessibility requirements for disabled people.

Representing RNIB, Julie is now working with the DRC, the British Standards Institute and other stakeholders to create, in consultation, a concrete set of web access standards for the new media industry. At present, little information is known about this project.

Others in the disability community may know Julie Howell for her long-established Multiple Sclerosis support website Jooly's Joint, which is also known as MS Webpals.