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Some people merely surf the Net. Leigh-Anne Tompkins hangs five. Using her right foot to spin her Kensington Turbo Mouse and her toes to click its buttons, Tompkins flits about the screen of her Power Macintosh, opening windows, launching applications and punching up Web pages. The 30-year-old graphic artist has trouble with routine tasks that most people take for granted. Cerebral palsy has left her with full mobility only in her right foot. She has difficulty speaking and hearing and uses a wheelchair to get around. But on the Mac, she's footloose and fancy free. ''To be truthful, the computer is the only thing I can control myself,'' Tompkins said. Can she ever. On America Online, she's known by her screen name, Madtoe - a reference to her nimble-footed mouse moves. From her under-the-desk command center, she also can use her toes to switch on her printers, scanner and other equipment in her home studio. A head-mounted stylus lets her tap away at the keyboard. And she's fast: No one conversing with her in an AOL chat room would guess that she has disabilities. ''I got hooked on chat rooms,'' she admitted. The computer makes it easier for Tompkins to socialize and communicate with people. But it's also the core of her business, Graphics Afoot. Tompkins uses the Mac to produce slide presentations, newsletters, reports, graphics, maps and other projects for companies such as GATX Logistics, AT&T Universal Card Services and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida. She's mastered graphics programs such as PhotoShop, Illustrator, FreeHand and QuarkXPress. She also draws with pen and ink, propping a pen between her toes. ''Right now I am doing outsource work for other companies, since workplaces wouldn't accept me because of my disability,'' said Tompkins, who earned a bachelor's degree in graphic design from the University of North Florida in 1992, graduating magna cum laude.
Tompkins' work for GATX includes producing a quarterly newsletter that goes out to about 3,500 employees, said Anita Speck, senior graphics designer for the company. ''She will go to any length to see that the job is done,'' said Speck, a former classmate of Tompkins. ''It's been hard for her,'' Speck said. ''Some people [employers] have problems with her disability. They don't understand her, they don't feel comfortable around her.'' When Tompkins feels discouraged, she thinks of the motto she adopted back in elementary school: ''I can because I think I can.'' ''Since then, that slogan has been my motivator. It gives me a lot of self-esteem,'' she said. Tompkins' older brother, Eric, a computer engineer, introduced her to computers and gave her some advice: ''Don't worry, the computer will always wait for you.'' Now Tompkins is giving that same advice to others. Several disabled people are among the students she tutors in computer graphics. She also is active in the North Florida Macintosh Users Group, serving on its board of directors. At the group's Tuesday night meeting, Tompkins will demonstrate Adobe PageMill, a program used to create Web sites. Her own Web site offers information about her business, examples of her work, and a link to a tribute page in memory of her toy poodle, Lover Dolly, which died in September. For Christmas, Tompkins got a special present: a toy poodle puppy she named Java, as in the programming language. Tompkins hopes to add more clients and expand her studio. She also plans to go back to school to get a master's degree in visual graphic arts. And she has some big-screen ambitions. ''I've always had a dream of doing some graphics for the movies,'' she said. |  | 
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