It’s that time of year again – it’s VisAbility Awards time! Last week we celebrated our 46th annual awards night, held in the very heart of VisAbility WA, in our theatrette. This year we had a lot of great nominations, and only so many awards we could give out! Without further ado, let’s have a look at who won what.
Angus Stewart Award for Personal Achievement – Junior
Louis Masarei-Boulton
Louis racked up a plethora of academic and social achievements last year.
In his year of 180 students, he won subject awards in Mathematics, Science, and Digital Technologies. He also claimed Dux for his house and his year level.
Louis also registered 100 hours of community service last year and is well on his way to his 200-hour milestone. This service ranged from visiting Aged Care facilities to volunteering at his school’s Homework Club. Louis also participated in beach clean-ups, tree planting, and bush care.
On top of academic and social achievements, Louis is also passionate about sport. Louis enjoys cross-country running with a guide runner and is involved with Blindsports WA. Here, he mentors younger blind and vision-impaired children.
Angus Stewart Award for Personal Achievement – Post-Secondary
Zoe Coultard
Zoe is currently pursuing her degree in Biomedical Science at UWA.
Upon receiving her offer to study, Zoe was very excited about her new adventure, however, she was also faced with a new challenge – public transport. Her low vision made reading bus numbers and signs difficult and posed a significant hurdle to her ability to attend classes. Zoe was undaunted by this challenge. With the help of an Orientation and Mobility Instructor, Zoe familiarised herself with her commute. She is now confident with, not only traveling independently to university but using public transport in general.
Zoe’s steadfastness and determination for all things are reflected in her studies. She consistently achieves the grade of Distinction or higher and has even had her examination answers used as an exemplar for other students.
Angus Stewart Award for Personal Achievement – Open-Age
Sarah Brownhill
Sarah studied for a Bachelor of Social Work and, after graduating, worked in the industry for 8 years. After running into considerable setbacks due to her inability to drive, and after experiencing numerous instances of workplace discrimination, Sarah decided that a change of occupation was necessary. In 2016, she completed a Diploma of Remedial Massage. In 2023, she continued to expand her skillset. She travelled to Brisbane with her then Guide Dog Honey to pursue post-graduate study in Lymphoedema Therapy.
In that same year, Sarah began her sole trader clinic while continuing part-time work at a massage clinic while she got her business off the ground. A year later, she was able to quit her part-time role and commit herself fully to her own business after building a steady and consistent client base.
Ida Lloyd Award for Inclusion
Jessica Lovett
Jessica has been playing Goalball since her early teenage years. Since then, she’s demonstrated a longstanding and deep commitment to the sport and its wider community.
Throughout her competitive career, she has accumulated a wide variety of accolades and achievements. Jessica has also represented Western Australia at a national level, and Australia in world competitions.
Jessica is currently the coach of the WA Women and Youth goalball teams and has recently been selected as Assistant Coach to the Australian Youth Goalball Squad. This prestigious role makes her one of only two female coaches within the Australian Goalball community.
Fred and Lorna Craggs Award for Excellence – Regional
Mikayla Camp
Mikayla (Micky) Camp is a courageous and resilient young woman who, after losing her vision at 14 due to Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON), overcame bullying and adversity to excel both academically and personally.
Before her diagnosis, Micky was a high-performing athlete and student. With her degenerating vision, both of these pursuits were interrupted as she learned to navigate the world with her new condition. Through a long and difficult process, and with remarkable resilience, Micky revitalised her academic ambitions. She started a Vocational Education and Training (VET) program which she completed in 2023. She achieved the grade of distinction, earning two Certificate III qualifications—in Education Assistant and Sport and Recreation—and received the Top VET Student Award.
Mikaya is now legally blind and works as full-time as an Education Assistant at a disability school. She has also returned to competitive netball, playing at A2 level – the second highest in her region.
Fred and Lorna Craggs Award for Excellence – Metro
ICONYX
Ally, known professionally as ICONYX, is a remarkable and inspirational young artist, who has recently released her debut album, Blak on Trak.
This project is the culmination of five years of hard work and effort and showcases Ally’s powerful voice, cultural heritage, and unique perspective as an artist telling stories and navigating the world without sight. In this album, she performed the roles of singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and co-producer.
ICONYX has been performing around Perth for many years at festivals, NAIDOC events, CinefestOz and the Telethon Ball. In February 2025 she opened for Emily Wurramara at Perth Festival.
Her impressive accolades include being the WAM 2022 Act Belong Commit category winner for her song Dawn of the Future. She’s also had two more songs shortlisted for the 2025 WAM awards, to be held Wednesday, June 18th. These songs are; Justice and Blak on Trak.
Excellence in the Workplace
Irene Lamb
Irene has been working with vision-impaired dancers since 2021. Since then, she has become a dedicated and passionate advocate for inclusive dance. She has competed in many Special Olympics DanceSport competitions with her student Susan Mullane.
Irene also volunteered her time to support the Ballroom Fit weekly vision-impaired dance class in the City of Mandurah from 2021 through 2024. Her commitment to this group class highlights her passion for building community through dance and making ballroom accessible to all.
Family Leadership Award
Melanie Boulton
Melanie Boulton is an extraordinary advocate, mentor, and leader, whose unwavering dedication has transformed the lives of countless families navigating the journey of vision impairment.
Malanie’s husband and two of her four children all have albinism and low vision. This has given her a unique and rounded perspective of the challenges that come with these conditions.
Through her work as Western Australia’s State Representative for the Albinism Fellowship of Australia, Melanie has been instrumental in building a strong and inclusive support network across the state. She is the first point of contact for many newly diagnosed families, and as such provides guidance, empathy, and practical advice at a time of uncertainty.
Community Commitment
Perth Soccer Club
Perth Soccer Club has shown deep and longstanding commitment towards welcoming the blind and vision-impaired community into their club. Over the last three years, through their blind soccer program, the PSC has become a leading club in Perth for the blind and low-vision community.
During its annual awards night in 2024, Perth Soccer Club celebrated a breakout year for the blind soccer team, who recorded an undefeated season. The PSC went to extra lengths to acknowledge the team and coaches for an amazing year and commemorated this achievement.
This enthusiasm isn’t just limited to their club members. PSC has consistently demonstrated willing support for all attendees with vision impairment at their venue and went out of their way to make the venue accessible.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Ron Anderson
Ron has spent more than 50 years with a vision impairment, starting when he was 32. In that time, he has overcome both personal and physical hardship to achieve his academic, sporting and social goals.
Over the years, Ron completed an Associate Diploma in Recreation at the W.A. College of Advanced Education, founded Blind Golf (now played in 19 countries), and played a prominent role in both establishing and participating in Tandem Cycling for the Blind.
>Ron also served as Recreation Officer and Public Relations Officer for the Braille Society of WA/Association for the Blind of WA, between 1975 and 2004.
Even today, Ron continues to actively participate in blind golf and lawn bowls, despite only retaining 1% of his peripheral vision.
>Ron’s life story has been recorded in his biography, which is available in print and talking book via the VisAbility WA Library.
Outstanding Service Award
Arthur Graham
Arthur is in his 80s and moved to Geraldton after losing his vision a decade ago. It was then that he realised how little support was available in a rural town for those living with low and no vision.
To that end, Arthur established a community group and reconnected the low-and-no-vision community of Geraldton. He has dedicated his time to organising and facilitating this group. The group now meets monthly at the Senior Citizens Centre.
Through his work, group members now have access to guest speakers and innovations in technology. They’re provided with information on staying safe online, how to avoid scams and other information that might be relevant to them. On top of that, group members build confidence and capacity and provide social interaction to one another.
And that’s everyone! We had so many great nominations this year, and our panel of judges had to make some really hard decisions! We’d like to congratulate all our winners, runners-up, and nominees. Every one of them showed significant achievements and are more than deserving of their accolades.
Congratulations to the 2025 VisAbility Award winners and runners-up
Angus Stewart Award: 12-17 years
- Runner up: Karla Van Dyk
- Winner: Louis Masarei-Boulton
Angus Stewart post secondary 17-30 years
- Runner up: Karin Boulton
- Winner: Zoe Coultard
Angus Stewart Open
- Runner up: Ayesha Patterson
- Winner: Sarah Brownhill
Fred and Lorna Craggs Award – Metro
- Runner up: Vanessa Vlajkovic
- Winner: Ally – aka Iconyx
Fred and Lorna Craggs – Regional
- Runner up: Kaleb Zijlstra
- Winner: Mikayla Camp
Ida Lloyd Award for Inclusion
- Runner Up: Tegan Reder
- Winner: Jessica Lovett
Excellence in the workplace
- Runner up: Sally Marks
- Winner: Irene Lamb
Family Leader
- Runner up: Aafje McLauchlan
- Winner: Melanie Boulton
Community Commitment
- Runner up: Aquinas College
- Winner: Perth Soccer Club
Outstanding Community Service
- Winner: Arthur Graham
Lifetime Achievement
- Winner: Ron Anderson
Once again, thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate all these great achievements. We also extend our gratitude to our generous award sponsors and their families. This wouldn’t have been possible without your generosity. And a final thank you to our team of organisers who put everything together and ensured we all had a great night!
If you know someone you would like to nominate for the 2026 VisAbility Awards, nominations open in April, but you can start working on your nomination letter right now! For more information about the award categories, please visit this link.