About

Here's me, Leah, at my white coat ceremony at the beginning of medical school. I am wearing glasses, have long hair, and am wearing a white coat and stethoscope.
Here I am again dressed up in a white shirt and black tie at the end of my third year of college. My hair is braided and I'm holding a backpack over my right shoulder.

Hi, I'm Leah! I'm a medical student and have achondroplasia dwarfism.

In my first year of medical school, we were to be given a lecture on skeletal dysplasias. In previewing the slides, most of the photos of people with achondroplasia were taken in doctors' offices. The photos were black and white, the subjects were naked, and their eyes were blacked out. These photos were hard to identify with because they seemed so medicalized. There was one photo of a smiling person with achon; it was in an ad for a "treatment" that may or may not really work. I asked the lecturer if she could change the photos to be more inclusive, she said that she didn't have the permissions to use any other photos. From that interaction, we have this project.


This is my attempt to build on the idea that disability is a part of life. In doctor speak, it is "within the range of normal," and is not something that needs to be "fixed". It is a part of how I identify, and that should be reflected in how medical professionals are educated.


I hope these photos make disability seem less medical, less scary, and less like something that is our job to fix. These photos show us living our lives.

Thoughts? leah.q.crawford@cuanschutz.edu