Mercury News, San Jose , California

by JOHN WOOLFOLK

March 20, 2000

Advocacy group draw hundreds to regional conference in San Jose 

The little things are often the biggest pain for little people.

"It definitely brings on a constant frustration not being able to reach or fit comfortably into furniture," said Peggy O'Neill-Laise, who is 3 feet 8. "How can I reach the sink?. How can I reach the person behind the counter to pay my bill?"

O'Neill-Laise was among 200 people who gathered in San Jose this weekend for a regional conference of the Little People of America, the advocacy group established by diminutive actor Billy Barty in 1957 for people under 4 feet 10.

For little people -- the term they prefer to "dwarf" or "midget" -- such gatherings are a chance to meet others like them and share strategies for dealing with a world that literally looks down on them.

"Little people are stigmatized," said O'Neill-Laise, a therapist and motivational speaker from Ojai. "We're stared at, laughed at, and pointed at. People think our height has something to do with our intelligence or capabilities."

Documentary filmmaker Dan McKinney, 27, blames Hollywood for making comic figures of little people in everything from the Munchkins in "The Wizard of Oz" to Mini-me in the "Austin Powers" sequel.

"They're not portrayed as real people with children and jobs," said McKinney of San Jose, a normal height videographer whose latest documentary, "Eye Level," chronicles a recent Little People conference.

Things have gotten much better since the circus freak show days. The Americans with Disabilities Act, which mandates wheelchair accessibility in public places, has done much to put the world within reach of little people, although things like bathroom sink faucets still pose a challenge. San Jose's DoubleTree Hotel, where the conference was held, prepared for the crowd by placing stepping stools by the reception desk and in the restrooms.

Yet hurdles remain, like finding a good doctor. Although little people generally have the same life expectancy as anyone else, many suffer from chronic bone and neurological disorders, said Ginny Foos, who coordinates a clinic on dwarfism at Children's Hospital in Oakland. There are 150 kinds of the genetic condition known as dwarfism. But outside major metropolitan areas, there are few doctors with any expertise in them, said Foos, a little person herself.

Karyn Noel of El Cerrito knows about that first hand. She had to shop around for a doctor who even recognized that her 5-year old daughter Isabella is a dwarf.

"She wasn't developing at the same milestones as the books said," Noel said. "She had funny proportions. I kept reporting these things to her pediatrician but he wasn't picking up the clues."

Noel finally found a good doctor. The Bay Area is blessed with many experts on dwarfism.

Now her worry is how Isabella will handle the taunts she's sure will come as her daughter grows older but not up. She tries to show her how to deal with such slights as the woman who lifted Isabella's skirt at a park and proclaimed. "What's wrong with her legs? Wow! Look at those bowlegs. They sure are bowed!"

"I live in fear of the day somebody's going to hurt her feelings," Noel said. "I want to make sure she can roll with the punches."  

"I was so happy to be with people I could talk eye to eye with, and be able to dance with people face to face."

-Peggy O'Neill

O'Neill-Laise, the therapist, said it took her years to learn how to do that. Growing up in Ohio, she never knew any other little people. She remembers kids yelling "midget" at her from passing school buses and never being asked on a date.

"That was very painful,"  O'Neill-Laise recalled. "It makes you want to shrivel up and die."

Going to her first Little People conference at age 24 changed her life.  She met her husband, Brad Laise, at a Little People conference.

"I had never seen little people before in a group," O'Neill-Laise said.  "I was so happy to be with people I could talk eye to eye with and be able to dance with people face to face."

In some ways she wishes she wasn't little, because height can be an advantage.

"It's like, who wouldn't rather be rich than poor," she said.

But she prides herself on overcoming challenges and helping others like herself.

"Sometimes, having a problem makes you a better person," O'Neill-Laise said. "There are gifts in everything. It depends on how you apply yourself to the challenges."