Visionary Annual Awards 2026

Digital & Technology Award – sponsored by Guide Dogs

This award celebrates organisations that have embraced technology to make a positive difference to the lives of blind and partially sighted people they support, the communities they work in, or the way they operate.

We want to hear from organisations who have used technology creatively, practically, and with real purpose to improve lives. We are interested in nominations which showcase innovation and are replicable across the UK. We welcome submissions that demonstrate the impact of what technology can do in our sector. This could include, but is not exclusive:

• Using AI or emerging tools to improve services, streamline processes, or open up new possibilities for blind and partially sighted people.
• Adopting or adapting technology to strengthen internal systems, improve efficiency, or free up capacity to do more of what matters.
• Helping blind and partially sighted people in your local community access, understand, and benefit from the technology available to them.
• Providing specialist technology support, training, or equipment that makes a tangible difference to people’s independence and daily lives.

Whether you have taken a small but significant step or made a transformational leap, we want to hear from you.

We welcome nominations that demonstrate how technology has improved outcomes for blind and partially sighted people, strengthened organisational effectiveness, or both.

Eligibility:

• Visionary member organisations
• National partner organisations working in partnership with local organisations to improve local service provision

Eye Health Award – sponsored by Specsavers

This award recognises outstanding work to improve eye health, access to eye care, early intervention, as well as the systems and support that help people understand, navigate and benefit from eye health services.

We want to hear from organisations who have made it easier for people to understand their eye health, navigate the system, or get the support they need. This could be through direct community engagement, improving access to advice and guidance locally, or working to influence the people and systems that shape eye care provision. Projects focused primarily on eye health awareness, access to eye care, prevention, diagnosis, treatment pathways, or eye health system improvement should be entered into this category, including where partnership or influencing activity forms part of the work.

We welcome nominations that demonstrate impact in one or more of the following areas:

• Raising Awareness: Creative or targeted approaches that have helped people understand the importance of eye health and act on it.
• Improving Access: Removing barriers so that more people, particularly those who are underserved, can access eye care, advice and guidance.
• Influencing Decision Makers: Taking steps to put eye health on the radar of those with the power to change it, whether that is an Integrated Care Board, a local authority, a commissioner, or an NHS Trust. We recognise that this is often a long game so we want to hear about the approaches and the progress you are making, not just the wins.

Eligibility:

• Visionary member organisations
• National partner organisations working in partnership with local organisations to improve local service provision

Impact Award – sponsored by Fight for Sight

This award celebrates projects, initiatives, or approaches that have made life better for blind and partially sighted people and offer valuable learning for the wider sector.

We want to hear about work that has made a real difference and demonstrates an approach that others can learn from, adapt, or build upon in their own communities. The submission does not need to be the biggest project or the most complex idea. The focus is on the positive outcomes it has achieved and how it provides learning that helps strengthen services across the UK.

We welcome nominations from organisations that can demonstrate:

• Meaningful Impact: What changed for the people you support as a result of this work.
• A Strong Approach: A well-designed project, service, or initiative that addressed a clear need or opportunity.
• Learning for the Sector: Lessons, insights, or practices that others can benefit from.
• Potential for Replication: An approach that can be adapted, scaled, or applied elsewhere.

This is an opportunity to showcase work that has not only made a difference locally, but has the potential to inspire positive change across the sector.

Eligibility:

• Visionary member organisations
• National partner organisations working in partnership with local organisations to improve local service provision

Influencing Award – sponsored by RNIB

This award celebrates organisations that have used their voice, their expertise and their relationships to create change for blind and partially sighted people, or those at risk of sight loss. Through advocacy, campaigning, awareness raising or influencing decision-makers, local organisations have helped make their communities, services, or systems work better for blind and partially sighted people.

Influencing change can take many forms. It might involve advocacy, campaigning, relationship building, awareness raising, or working directly with decision-makers to improve services and opportunities for blind and partially sighted people. It could be persuading a local café to introduce accessible menus, working with a leisure centre to improve its offer, supporting a school to change how it educates young people about sight loss, leading a local campaign, or making the case to an Integrated Care Board to improve local eye care services. Whatever the scale of the change, we want to hear how you made it happen.

We welcome nominations that demonstrate impact. This can include one of the following areas, but you may have other areas of work:

• Community: Working with local businesses, venues, or services to make small but meaningful changes that improve accessibility and awareness.
• Education and Awareness: Influencing schools, colleges, or community organisations to better understand and respond to the needs of blind and partially sighted people.
• Service Improvement: Engaging with leisure, cultural, or public services to raise standards and improve the experience for blind and partially sighted people.
• System and Policy Change: Making the case to health networks, local authorities, or commissioners to improve how services are planned, funded, or delivered.

Eligibility:

• Visionary member organisations
• National partner organisations working in partnership with local organisations to improve local service provision

Partnership Award – sponsored by Thomas Pocklington Trust

This award, sponsored by Thomas Pocklington Trust, is for organisations who identified an opportunity or a challenge and worked in partnership to address it.

We want to hear about partnerships that have made a genuine difference to blind and partially sighted people, or those at risk of sight loss. This can be the development of a new service, a better referral pathway, a project that reached new or more people, or two or more organisations who decided to reduce duplication and do something together instead.

Your organisation might have partnered with another charity, an NHS trust, a local authority, an optician, a business, or a community group. We are interested in submissions which showcase that your partnership has achieved one or more of the following:

• Made it easier for people to find or access support.
• Reached a community or group that was not being well served.
• Solved a problem that one organisation could not do on its own.
• Tried something new and learnt from it.

This award recognises outstanding collaboration. Judges will be particularly interested in how partners worked together, what each organisation contributed, and why the outcomes would not have been possible without the partnership.

Eligibility:

• Visionary member organisations
• National partner organisations working in partnership with local organisations to improve local service provision

Nominations can be made by Visionary Members and Partners, for themselves or other organisations in the network that they have been inspired by.