Shortly before her death, she posted her last message on Facebook. She said that she had been supported in her life by three saving graces: her family, her friends, and her belief in the power of hope. Elizabeth Edwards died of cancer in December at the age of sixty-one.

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Paul Miller

STEVE EMBER: Paul Miller was a lawyer who became a leader in the disability rights movement. In nineteen eighty-six, he graduated at the top of his class from Harvard Law School in Boston, Massachusetts.

Many law firms wanted to hire him. But after meeting him, none would give him a job. Paul Miller was born with a condition called achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism. As an adult, he stood about one hundred thirty-seven centimeters tall.

Later in his career, Paul Miller would work to change such forms of discrimination. He became a member of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He helped enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act of nineteen ninety. This law protected disabled people in both public and private employment. He served as an advisor to President Clinton and President Obama.

He also worked to create federal laws protecting the privacy of people’s genetic information. Employers and insurance agencies cannot use this information in a discriminatory way.

As a child, Paul Miller’s parents took him to meetings of the Little People of America. This group gives support and information to people of short height and their families.