GG's Bio

MEET GEORGIA!!

A dynamic lady with quick wit, a bundle of skills and a penchant for saying exactly what she thinks, Georgia has been managing her CompuServe forums since 1983. Administering one forum with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of users can be a handful, but Georgia with her usual flair and boundless energy sees to the daily operation of seven of them...six of which deal with two of the most potentially volatile subjects one could think of - namely, politics and religion!

Born blind during the years of the Great Depression, Georgia had more than a few challenges to overcome in her life. She entered Capital University in Columbus, Ohio as their first blind student and graduated four years later cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in music education. She returned to her hometown to teach in public school and give private music lessons. By the 1960's her hearing loss was significant. Faced then with deafness, but not to be stopped, Georgia began a second career as a proofreader of Braille music for the Library of Congress, going on to earn the Library's top certification. During that period, she taught herself a few other languages - twelve in all - initially to help one of her friends with a small task...writing a Braille music dictionary.

Georgia's third career had seeds planted in 1980 when she discovered the VersaBraille machine (now no longer manufactured), a rather unique computer which translated text into Braille via a special keyboard. Thanks to her friends in the music world who raised money to help her cover the $5000 cost, the landscape of cyberspace quickly became Georgia's. She began chatting with folks around the world, helping when she could while vastly broadening her own learning of the world "out there." Going through various machines over the years, Georgia currently relies on the Telesensory Power Braille 40 which sits under her computer keyboard and provides her with an ongoing link to the world she's come to know and love. The New York Times certainly picked an apt title by calling Georgia "Net Queen" though she still insists she didn't know what all the fuss was about.

CompuServe recognized Georgia's talents for helping members and providing information, so by 1982 contracted with her to be Wizard of her own forums, now some of the most popular of the service with over 200,000 users. The Smithsonian recognized these same talents in the Spring of 1997 and presented Georgia with a medal for her outstanding efforts.

Georgia herself doesn't believe in disabilities, just different needs in different folks. In computer jargon solving difficult problems is done by "workarounds"...it's safe to say Georgia is pretty darn good at finding them and making the most of what life has to offer.


e-mail ggriffith@compuserve.com		© Copyright,G. Griffith,1996-98 All rights reserved
Last Updated: 10-Jan-98		Created: 7-Dec-96

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