AN annual search to find extraordinary people in Britain whose inventions make life better is back.

TalkTalk Digital Heroes Awards celebrate small-scale projects that are having a big impact on others thanks to the powerful combination of technology, hard work and passion.

Charlene Tait, from Alloa, was named skills digital hero last year.

The director of development at Scottish Autism won for her work on Right Click – an online support programme for parents and young people who are on the autism spectrum – and secured £5000 to help with the project.

As 2015’s nominations roll in, she said: “I would encourage people to take part in the TalkTalk awards, as it provides much needed funding for the activation of projects, and allowed for Scottish Autism to extend our support to even more people.

“It is always lovely to have your work recognised, but this was especially meaningful as so many of the parents who had used the programme, as well as professionals and others who are supporters of Scottish Autism took the time to vote for us.” The aim of Right Click – devised by Charlene and the autism support team – is to share knowledge and experience to enable parents to learns skills and strategies to support their child.

It saw the development of over 70 videos that include a range of support materials across three distinct programmes: young child, teen and adult.

Charlene said: “The autism support team fulfil a range of functions across the organisation, among them is staffing an autism advice line. From an analysis of calls to the advice line, the team identified a need for a resource that could be easily accessed from home and deliver practical information on the challenges most commonly faced by parents.

“With no such resource available to direct parents to, the team decided to develop Right Click.

“Right Click is particularly innovative as it overcomes some of the challenges parents may face in accessing support. It can be accessed at a time that suits them, for no cost and within the home environment which is particularly beneficial for those in rural areas.” Since the project was launched in January 2013 over 500 parents have taken part and feedback has been very positive.

The additional money from winning the TalkTalk award has enabled the team to start work on a woman and girls online support programme.

Charlene added: “Research demonstrates that under-diagnosis and poor levels of understanding or awareness of the needs of this group make them especially vulnerable.

“Since winning the award, we also received further substantial funding provided from the Scottish Government that will allow us the opportunity to fully develop the online support programme for women and girls.

“Over the next year we will work closely with women and girls from the autism community to develop a practical, reliable, online resource that will provide much needed information, support and practical advice to enable such women to lead full and enriched lives. “We also aim to organise a launch event for the programme later in the year, which will be supported by the funding from TalkTalk’s digital heroes award.” In nine categories (employment, healthy living, silver surfer, skills, volunteer, fundraising, education, sustainability, internet safety) there is a £5000 award up for grabs.

The next generation category has a prize of £4000 and a MacBook Air.

An overall winner will also be chosen and their prize will be bumped up to £10,000.

Digital heroes will also be recognised at a ceremony at the House of Commons where their work will be showcased to politicians and other key influencers in the world of technology.

To find out more about the award or submit a nomination head to digitalheroes.talktalk.co.uk