New Leonard Cheshire vice chair is IT expert

Governance | Tania Mason | 22 Dec 2009

Leonard Cheshire Disability has appointed an IT specialist as its vice chair as it seeks to expand its IT access programmes for disabled people and increase the online services it offers to disabled entrepreneurs.

Jenny Searle (pictured) is a former science and maths teachers who became an IT expert later in her career. She chaired the panel that produced the report Closing the digital divide and ran a government programme called ‘UK online for business’. She also has a wealth of private sector experience, having managed IT projects in the pharmaceutical, telecommunications and electronic industries.

Searle uses a wheelchair after contracting polio as a child, and has been a trustee of Leonard Cheshire Disability since 2007.

She said: “I am passionate about how IT can be used to overcome disadvantage. Leonard Cheshire Disability is already doing pioneering work in this area but there is much more we can and will do to support disabled people in their use of technology.”

Searle joins Stewart Brown to become the second vice chair on the charity’s board.

Leonard Cheshire Disability hopes next year to increase the number of locations where it runs Discover IT, a programme that enables disabled people to improve their computer skills in community-based computer rooms across the country.

Another major area of focus will be the development of new online tools and resources to support disabled entrepreneurs. This will complement the work the charity has already done to support disabled entrepreneurs, such as Ready to Start, a programme run in partnership with Barclays which provided a support package including a business buddy, distance mentor, free computer equipment, referral to local services and information about relevant trade bodies and business associations to help them network locally.

Directory: Leonard Cheshire Disability

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