| | We aren't alone or unique as a people.
It was only in the late 70's that we firmly announced that we were a cultural group, that is, a society of deaf people equal to any other in the world. Before that we organized clubs and civic associations, sports teams and churches and fought for legal rights, but never before did we come out and ASK for recognition as a cultural entity. We were inspired by Black organizations and the fight for civil rights, and demanded the right to self-determination which reached a crisis point during the Gallaudet protest of 1988. Between that and the second Gallaudet protest of 2006 there was a growing development of what is Deaf Culture, by defining ASL, its artistic and literary pursuits, and the inception of sign language studies and cultural programs. Now we are reaching a stage where we are questioning the validity of many concepts and coming up with new theoretical ones.
Now that we are coming of age as a cultural group, it would be interesting to study other groups for additional insights.
 Picture: Little People, Big World (DVD, uncaptioned, Amazon.com)
One parallel group are people born with dwarfism. Like Deaf people, most dwarfs, who prefer to be called Little People have a society. Like Deaf people, most (80%) are born to average people. There are over a hundred types of dwarfism, the most common one being achondroplasia, the condition found in 80% of all Little People (LP's). Most LP's dislike the terms midget, munchkin and lilliputian in the same intensity we dislike the terms deaf and dumb, deaf-mute, and hearing-impaired. Like Deaf people who self-identify as deaf, Deaf, hard-of-hearing, oral or ASL, Little People also may self-identify by the type of dwarfism they have: such as: achondroplasia, diastrophia, or primordial.
Parents of dwarf babies find themselves in the distressing position of knowing nothing about the future of their LP child. Like parents of deaf babies, they go on searches for information and might contact the Little People of America, an advocacy organization similar to the NAD. (Not all LP's are members of the 5,000-member LPA, though.) The LPA is composed of people of all occupations: teachers, artists, lawyers, doctors, accountants, welders, plumbers, engineers and actors. They also represent every nationality, ethnic group, religion and sexual orientation. Many have secondary disabilities, usually skeletal, as part of the dwarfism complex. They share a common feeling of self-acceptance, pride, community and culture, like Deaf people do in their social groups. Just take a look at the LPA website and the homepage of the photographer Gary Parker. The heartwarming pictures are captivating!
Like Deaf children, LP children find challenges in schooling and in meeting other children. Those with secondary disabilities may be home-schooled or schooled in special environments that also serve other physically disabled children, but most attend mainstream schools and compete with average children.
Little People frequently marry other LP's and become parents, and those with achondroplasia may have a 2 in 4 chance of having a child with dwarfism, and a 1 in 4 chance of having an AP (average height person) child. They adapt their homes (as Deaf people do with lights) by installing lowered countertops, accessible cabinets and latches, and extra steps wherever handy. As Deaf people add mirrors to their cars, so do LPs add lifts to seats and extenders on the pedals of their cars.
Like Deaf parents who welcome Deaf children in their families, Little People also welcome children born with dwarfism as new members of a society they know well. For them and for us, our differences are to be celebrated, not to be distressed over, and we do not feel disabled except by the attitudes of the larger society. Like Deaf people who unwillingly face the medical model and prefer a cultural viewpoint on themselves, so do Dwarf people who would rather be seen as a social group than be regarded as having medical problems.
LP's have their own World Games which this year were held in Belfast, Ireland during the last half of July. They also have conventions on a state, international and national basis, the most recent being a national conference last month in New York City.
Like Deaf people who battle audism, LP's fight heightism, an attitude in average people favoring those who are tall over those who are short. A 2004 study found that each additional inch of height translated to an average increase in salary of $789 per year. Like Deaf people, Little People realize that more height, like more hearing, brings higher incomes. Little People feel this is unfair and it is unfair, comparable to race and gender differences in salary.
Like parents who opt for cochlear implants, parents of LPs may consider height-increasing surgery for their dwarf children. Similar to many Deaf people in the case of cochlear implants, the LPs consider limb-lengthening surgery as unwise, dangerous and questionable in benefit.
This surgery involves breaking of the long bones of the arms and legs and slowly pulling them apart, a millimeter a day, in specially constructed frames screwed into the bone, adding up to two inches. Medical involvement may be giving powerful human growth hormones to force preteen childrens' growth during a period of five years, but may result in only 1 to 1.5 inches additional height plus the possibility of serious future health problems as a result.
LPs regard this as "profiting from prejudice". By bowing to the height expectations of society, the pharmaceutical industry, and the surgical profession, otherwise healthy LP children have their well-being put at risk by well-meaning parents. Even if most LP children are made taller, there will always be those who do not respond, and will still bear effects of the heightism prejudice that the treatment unwittingly promotes. In a future when most Deaf children receive cochlear implants, there always will be those that are not candidates or who receive no benefit too. These will be the ones who receive the brunt of a worsened form of audism.
The stress of being short throughout life is regarded as less severe than the emotional and physical stress of meeting pointless expectations of the average height population. "What we need to do instead is to educate those who discriminate against short people, not engage in the genetic or medical engineering of little people." is often said by LP advocates.
Deaf people protesting the implications of cochlear implant surgery are saying the same thing. What we need to do instead is to educate those who discriminate against deaf people, not engage in the genetic or medical engineering of deaf people to satisfy the expectations of hearing society.
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| | Posted 8/13/2009 8:13 AM - 239 Views - 4 eProps - 4 comments
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