An inventor from Cadgwith has won a £10,000 award for developing a life-changing technology.

Steve Holyer created the Adi Access RoomMate – a device that helps blind people access public toilets – after becoming frustrated at the lack of options for the visually impaired.

His invention has now won one of the top prizes in the 2019 Stelios Awards for Disabled Entrepreneurs.

Steve hopes to use the prize money to further develop the RoomMate technology to include voice-activated language selection.

This will allow RoomMate to be exported to countries around the world.

He suffers from a degenerative sight condition and would need help to use so-called ‘accessible toilets’.

As a result he set out to create the RoomMate. The device is installed on the wall and plays a recorded description of the fixtures and fittings (including the emergency call system), where they are and how they operate.

It helps those who need it to navigate and understand their surroundings.

Steve is one of five contestants of the Stelios Awards to win £10,000 and is in the running for the top prize of £30,000.

Four other entrants will win £5,000 each.

A record number of 88 entrants applied for this year’s awards.

The other four winners include:

• Sarah Griffiths, whose Mastery in Motion business offers coaching and empowerment lessons for disabled people to help them create a life that lights them up. Sarah offers online courses and published a book while building her business: https://wheeliemomma.co.uk/

• Mike Wood, a former Paralympian, whose Dinghies for Disabled business aims to help up to 60,000 disabled people get into sailing. www.disabledsailing.org

• Sophia Wyatt, who founded a cosmetic business from her garage, for people with pigmentation conditions and scarring, Sophia Wyatt Aesthetics, taking inspiration from her own experiences: www.sophiawyatt.co.uk

• Victoria Nelson, who created the first online counselling service for (D)deaf people, and offers fully-signed mental health workshops in person and online: https://www.deaf4deaf.com/

The awards, jointly run by the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation and Leonard Cheshire, first opened in 2006. They recognise the achievements of disabled entrepreneurs in the UK.

Last year’s winner was Josh Wintersgill, a Bristol-based inventor who created easyTravelseat, a sling to help air passengers with wheelchairs transfer while flying.

The overall winner will be announced at an awards ceremony on 22 October.

More information on the RoomMate here: https://www.adiaccess.co.uk/the-roommate.