Laura O.
Although I do not have dwarfism myself, I worked with a man who did. He was married and had two sons. His wife was petite, but didn't have dwarfism, one son was of regular height, and the youngest had dwarfism. I felt bad for the man, because his oldest son went through a time when he was embarrassed about his family and very vocal about it. His youngest son's dream was to become a chef, but ended up dropping out of culinary school because he was told that he would get no special treatment when it came to carrying 50 lb. bags of flour and such. In other words, they made no attempt to accomodate him in any way. I asked why he didn't press the issue legally, and was told that he didn't want the attention it would bring. I know for myself, that before working with the man for nearly 10 years, I felt like if I looked at someone with dwarfism that they must always be thinking, "What are you looking at?" Really, it stems from an ignorance we of "normal" height have about dwarfism. I learned a lot of things from my friend. Things like the surgeries that some have to face and the back braces and some of the medical problems associated with the condition. Even what he did for clothing. I really believe that if better information were available, and that it wasn't almost like a "taboo" subject to discuss in society in general, more people would understand and (hopefully) be more at ease with people of all heights. It's funny, we don't seem to be afraid that we will offend the extremely tall, but nearly avert our gaze from the extremely small. I don't know if anything I have given you will be very helpful or not, but best of luck on your project! :) Take care, Laura