Sorry Laura. From experience.

Hearing loss diminishes your ability - to hear (I wear hearing aids).
Eyesight loss diminishes your ability - to see (Reading glasses here).

But lack of height is NOT an impairment. Nothing is diminished except the self-esteem of the person who is not of "normal" height.

My ex was 4'10" and VERY sensitive to height "jokes", comments, and remarks. She passed on the gene to our daughters, and has stated, at times, that had she known that our daughters were going to be "short", she would not have had children. When we were divorced, her feelings on height were one of the reasons why I was given custody.

I'll repeat here from earlier post. I've worked very hard to give my daughters a very health self esteem. They are 4'7" and 4'8". Much shorter than the average. And classmates can be cruel. We worked on how to reply to jokes, inappropriate comments and remarks. How to educate the teachers so that they would be treated as an equal, not a toy (they were constantly picked up and carried by classmates, in fun), and that their lack of stature did not mean a lack of mental capacity (both are in the upper 2% on all standard testing). They are both now in college, where they are "on their own", and are doing very well.

Of course they ALWAYS pick the TALLEST person for friends.

Sorry for the rant, but you're talking about my family... :-)