Brighton's Charlotte Austwick picks up a national award for her dyslexia work

Charlotte Austwick, a writer, speaker and dyslexia advocate from Brighton, has won the special judges’ recognition Trailblazer Award at the Dyslexia Awards in Telford. The award, first reported by the Argus¹, recognises her work raising awareness and changing perceptions of dyslexia in the UK and abroad.

She went into the ceremony as a finalist in the Community Shining Star (20+) category. The judges called her a “powerful voice for the dyslexic community”.

“When I heard I had won I was overwhelmed,” she told the Argus. “This recognition is not mine alone and represents a community of people who have supported my journey so far.”

Austwick is a PhD researcher in social anthropology at the University of Sussex. Her work centres on the voices of people from the forests of Central and South America, and on how indigenous knowledge could help with the global environmental crisis.

In 2019 the Scientific Exploration Society gave her its River Foundation Award for work to protect and preserve two endangered Maya languages. She has lived and worked with the Maya in Central America, and has since published and edited two books in the Q’eqchi’ and Mopan Maya languages. The British Dyslexia Association has also given her its Cadogan Award for Resilience.

The Dyslexia Awards started in Shropshire and this is their tenth anniversary year. Founder Elizabeth Wilkinson MBE said: “It has been an absolute pleasure to meet and see so many talented dyslexic individuals celebrated.”