LITTLE PEOPLE SEEK BIG IMPACT ON PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS, FACILITIES

For some people, being little can mean big problems. For Ed Lang, dealing with supermarket shelves, high curbs and some water fountains can be difficult. Lang, a 40-year-old former journalist who works as a technical writer for IBM, is 4 feet 2 inches tall. He and about 80 other little people from Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama are in Boca Raton, Fla., for a three-day regional conference of the Little People of America. Little People. Not midgets. "We abhor that word, `midget,' " Lang said. "When people hear it, they think of a circus, and that keeps them from seeing us as serious or professional." Actor Billy Barty founded the organization in 1957. About 5,000 of the nearly 1 million Americans under 4 feet 10 inches are members. This weekend, the group will dine, dance and listen to physicians discuss advances in the field of dwarfism.