I was holding my cup of hot coffee with both gloveless hands on a cold late afternoon in Manhattan, looking into a storefront window.  Standing next to me was a young mother and her little daughter with a physical disability. They were both looking at the “perfect” body of the mannequin in the window. Made me wonder what they might be thinking. And then it made me think of this video.  Wonder how you feel about this kind of advocacy storytelling?

Aren’t we all looking for the same thing and just seeing it differently?
Until we see it, until we get it, together?

What if, instead of the typical perfect mannequins in the store window, you saw one created with a disability? A human figure with scoliosis or brittle bone disease… modeling the latest fashions. One with shortened limbs, the other with a malformed spine. Now, what if you were that person with a disability seeing your form in that public window normally reserved for the “perfect” body?

This campaign was conceived for International Day of Persons with Disabilities by Pro Infirmis, an organization for the disabled. Entitled “Because who is perfect? Get closer,” it was designed to provoke reflection on the acceptance of people with disabilities. The figures are life-sized, three-dimensional representations of Miss Handicap 2010, Jasmin Rechsteiner, radio presenter and film critic Alex Oberholzer, track and field athlete Urs Kolly, blogger Nadja Schmid and actor Erwin Aljukic.

“We often go chasing after ideals instead of accepting life in all its diversity. Pro Infirmis strives especially for the acceptance of disability and the inclusion of people with disabilities.”
— Mark Zumbühl, Pro Infirmis Executive Board

What did I feel? People seeing the same beautiful, human thing they all wanted…together.