OAKWOOD - Mike Hall hasn't let disability block him from life's pursuits.

Despite a life of blindness, the 54-year-old South Hall man has earned a degree in journalism, worked in radio and now serves as a dispatcher at the Georgia Forestry Commission's Oakwood office.

All with a cheery disposition, his colleagues said.

"He's never in a bad mood. He always has a great attitude about whatever he's trying to do," said his boss, District Ranger Shawn Alexander.

During an interview last week at his office off Atlanta Highway, Hall talked about his disability mostly in terms of how it has affected his lifestyle, such as how he travels between work and home.

"The people here ... everybody helps. If I need somebody, I just ask," he said.

Hall doesn't shy away from the topic of his blindness and is quick to inject humor.

He operates with Window Eyes, a screen reader that aids computer users who are vision impaired. But when he first started on the job in June 1996, his main communication tool was a typewriter.

"If the ribbon ran out, I was in trouble," he said, laughing.

Adjustments in daily tasks taken for granted by the sighted world have been part of Hall's life since his premature birth; he weighed 2 pounds, 5 ounces.

"They placed me in the incubator and the oxygen actually damaged my eyes," said the native of West Union, S.C.

Hall attended the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind in Spartanburg, S.C. Later, his father, while working in Georgia, found out that Gainesville High School was placing blind students in regular classrooms.

"That meant my brother and I ... could go to school together," he said. "I have been living here ever since."

Hall graduated from Gainesville High in 1973, went on to Gainesville College in Oakwood and then the University of Georgia in Athens.

After earning his journalism degree, he worked for 20-plus years for an Atlanta radio station, working on commercials and in public affairs.

Just as that job ended, his mother learned about the dispatcher opening at the Georgia Forestry Commission office in Oakwood.

But Hall immediately dismissed it.

"I can't do that," he told his mom. "I walked down the hall, then turned around and came back and said (to her), ‘You know, I want to learn more about that job.'"

Hall talked with a retired Forestry Commission employee at the Lula office.

"The more I talked to him, the more I realized this is something I should be able to do," he said.

One thing that had concerned him was, "I thought I would have to be real good about giving directions," Hall said.

He pressed that point with his retiree friend, who "convinced me that most people (who called in) would know the area and could give you enough landmarks.

"If you can just be able to write those down, you're going to be able to get enough information to do what you need."

Hall handles calls from fire departments through the Forestry Commission's 20-county district that stretches to North Carolina and South Carolina.

"If we're responding, it's usually brush or woods involved," he said.

The agency as a whole provides a wide array of services, including fire detection, issuing burn permits, wildfire suppression and prevention and the growing and selling of tree seedlings for planting.

His work area features a computer, dispatch equipment, a braille typewriter and maps. He also keeps a card file with information, including phone numbers, in braille, that he gives out as needed.

Hall also issues burn permits on the weekends.

"So, it's handling the phones and handling the radios and sometimes both at the same time," he said, smiling.

Hall keeps some fairly demanding work hours, usually evenings through the week and all day on weekends.

Several people help him with rides, particularly his mother, who also works at the Forestry Commission office.

"I also have a couple of neighbors who can help out and a friend who lives across town and is retired now," Hall said. "If I get stuck, it's expensive, but I can take a taxi, and I've found a driver that I've known for years and he knows me and the areas I run in pretty good."

For relaxation, he enjoys reading and staying in touch with friends through e-mail. He also is a ham radio operator.

And much of Hall's spare time is devoted to community service.

He is membership chairman for the Gainesville Lions Club, on the board of directors for Gainesville Area Citizen Advocacy and a member of the Northeast Georgia Blind Coalition.

"I'm almost too busy," Hall said, laughing.