Cork teen addresses UN on disability

A Co Cork teenager born without arms and legs has told delegates at a United Nations conference this evening that technology was the limb she never had.

Joanne O’Riordan (16), with a rare congenital condition known as Total Amelia syndrome, delivered the keynote speech to the UN’s International Telecommunication Union in New York.

She urged delegates at the conference of leading women in technology to work on building a robot to help her and others with disabilities to live fuller lives.

“I’m asking the women here, who are the leading women in their fields, to start doing what I do every day – think outside the box. To think of ways and means to make technology more accessible to the people who really need it, she said.

“The main thing the robot would be doing is picking up the objects I drop such as a pen, knife, fork, and or my phone” she said

“I want to live an independent life just like you,” she added.

She told delegates how she had used technology to change her life “dramatically”.

She could with technology “do all the things my other friends were doing with their fingers. I was able to be as good as them if not better.”

“I can use my mobile phone, send texts, tweets, update my Facebook, play my PlayStation, Nintendo DS, iPad, iPod, and laptop; without Microsoft, Adobe and Apple in my life I would not be doing and achieving my full potential,” she said.

She explained that she used her upper and bottom lip, chin, nose and hand to work these systems.

“Technology has opened up a world of possibilities, through which I have excelled in both my education and social environment around me.

Ms O’Riordan explained that she began exploring the use of technology at the age of one.

“I figured out how to use it by simply moving my ‘hand’ and chin at a faster speed. Today I can type 36 words a minute and for someone with no limbs, I think that’s an incredible achievement,” she said.

Ms O’Riordan told delegates that her motto in life was “no limbs no limits”.

Ms O’Riordan was invited to speak by conference organisers after she appeared on The Late Late Show to talk about her condition last December.

She came to prominence in December when she challenged Taoiseach Enda Kenny over the eoalition’s plan to cut disability allowances for teenagers, a decision which was later reversed.