TCD team building robot for Joanne
A team from Trinity College Dublin’s technology department has been working since the beginning of the year to build the machine for Joanne O’Riordan, 17, who has the rare condition known as total amelia.
Her brother, Steven, said the team took up the challenge after Joanne made a speech at the UN last year calling for somebody to build a robot to help her.
Joanne from Millstreet, Co Cork, who also suffers from scoliosis, uses a laptop for school work and can text messages using her nose, lips and chin.
“The team secured €50,000 from the UN, but will need a further €27,000 to complete the project,” Steven said.
He added that he didn’t yet know how the extra money would be raised, or when the robot would be completed.
However, Steven said that Joanne and the team has been in constant contact to refine the robot for her specific needs.
If successful, the robot could become a blueprint for helping the handful of total amelia sufferers around the world.
Steven, who is making a documentary on his sister, will accompany her to London on Jun 23 where they will meet total amelia sufferer Tina Stark.
Next month they will fly out to the Philippines to meet Jesus Silva, who was also born with the condition.
Steven is going into the cutting room with an editor to look at the 120 hours of footage he has already shot of Joanne.
“It will have to be whittled down to a 75-minute documentary which we plan to premier at Cork Opera House on Oct 6. Tickets can already be booked for this,” Steven said.
His plucky sister has grabbed the country’s attention on a number of occasions, not least when she forced the Government into an embarrassing U-turn in Dec 2011. In its budget, the FG-led Coalition proposed that teenagers with disabilities couldn’t claim disability allowance until 18, instead of 16. Joanne wrote an open letter to Taoiseach Enda Kenny reminding him that on a visit to her home town earlier that year he had personally guaranteed her there would be no cuts to disability benefit.
