ising before dawn, Georgia Griffith, 64, dresses and eats breakfast in darkness. By 5 a.m. she sits down in her cramped office and turns on one of her five computers. Blind since birth and deaf for the past 25 years -- from a never-identified infection -- Georgia's computers link her to what she calls "the real world," a place where her physical disabilities impose no limits. With short breaks, she'll stay there until eight in the evening, following the news, exchanging email, advising other disabled people about technology, and making a living as an independent contractor hosting seven popular CompuServe forums. Georgia has never been limited by her disabilities. She grew up in a loving but demanding family that challenged her to iron and bake and learn to play music. By the time she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Capital State University in Columbus, Ohio, she could play 12 instruments. Still, by her own account, she had never read a newspaper and knew little of the outside world. In 1980 Georgia acquired a VersaBraille machine, a computer that translates text to braille. (Instead of words appearing on her computer screen, incoming emails and real-time chat text appear on the surface of a piezoelectric membrane.) The device brought easy conversation back into her life and enlarged her view. Soon after, her association with CompuServe brought new friends and still wider horizons. Today, Georgia hosts forums covering current events, politics, political debate, religion, Christian fellowship, the White House, and IBM Special Needs. In person, her words are often barely audible; online, her messages come through loud and clear. In a testament to the power and wonder of modern telecommunications technology, few of her forum participants are aware of her disabilities. "Beyond all the convenience, it is the people that I meet and the opportunities to share with them that make the online world such a delightful place to spend much of my life," Georgia says. "The people who gather in our forums and meet me in electronic mail are the kinds of folks who enrich my life and stimulate my thinking. They are among my closest friends and most interesting companions. Without this medium, we would never have met." Or, as Timothy Harper wrote in Sky magazine in November 1995, "If the one-eyed man is king in the land of the blind, this blind woman with the modem and the braille computer hookup is queen in the land of cyberspace." 
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