'Trailblazing' Bedfordshire businesswoman wins national award for helping disabled community

Claire Given, 42, has been named as a female "trailblazer" in the 2025 Women In Innovation Awards, recognising her determination to help people with physical impairments.

The ambitious entrepreneur, who describes herself as "a problem-solver who was born with one hand", is the founder of Equipmii – a website which helps brands and designers consider the needs of people "whose bodies differ from the status quo".

Describing her win, Claire said: "It was fantastic and has come at just the right time. The support from Innovate UK has been amazing – they have given us a £75,000 grant which has enabled us to keep going."

Claire's business journey started during the pandemic, rather unassumingly, whilst taking part in a Joe Wicks workout.

The entrepreneur was born with an upper limb difference – her left arm finishes just below the elbow – and she couldn't join in with all the PE teacher's tasks.

Remembering lockdown, Claire said: "I was leading a project designing new hardware for the International Space Station and I had a one-year-old and a three-year-old – and I was just losing my mind.

"I started doing Joe Wicks but so many exercises required equal balance over two hands.

"I felt really isolated with my disability. It really impacted me."

Ever resourceful, Claire designed a ‘balance cube’ to take part – an invention which had interest from the GB Paralympic team.

Meanwhile, her research led her to discover that over half of disabled people feel that brands aren’t doing enough to create products that work for everyone – and that 90 per cent report that product descriptions don’t include essential information.

"I felt like this was just the tip of the iceberg," she explained.

And the idea for Equipmii was born.

"Product design engineers can upload information about their design to Equimii's Accessibility Engine – and this will quickly provide an assessment – to highlight any usability issues across hundreds of impairments," said Claire.

"This process typically takes up to six months – costly and complex. But thanks to the Accessibility Engine, it can now be completed in seconds at a fraction of the cost."

Its success has been possible thanks to lived-experience data collected from thousands of people with physical impairments.

Everyone from brands and designers to engineers and inventors can get a digital assessment – and also arrange focus groups with the disabled community.

Claire added: "My hope is that we can one day provide a search engine experience for people with disabilities, pointing people to products that are easy to use and suit how their body works – offering high level personalisation."

Claire will soon visit her former school, Gartree High, in her hometown of Oadby, Leicestershire, to unveil a special plaque honouring her work.

Inspiring others with a disability, Claire concluded: "It has just made me more determined, if somebody assumes I can't do something, to be able to do it!

"Obviously there are challenges, but there have been some real positives. You find the good people – both romantically and with friendships.

"It's given me life experience."

Click here to visit Equipmii.

Click here for information about award organisers, Innovate UK, the UK's national innovation agency.