The article examines problems arising during confrontation of able-bodied people with those who have a defect qualifying them into a stigmatized group. It points out the signifi cance of the way a given individual is perceived by the interlocutor as a factor infl uencing the disturbance of an act of communication. The author analyzes the role of mechanisms of approach and avoidance in interpersonal contacts. She emphasizes the fact that often the so-called embarrassing moments apply not so much to stigmatized people as to ‘normal’ individuals. Such situation results from the impact of several significant factors during the creation of a message content, such as: stigma, fear, lack of experience, embarrassment, taboo, or repression of thought. They become a reason to infringe the principles of conversation. The awareness of this fact allows one to create a clear message, which will be correctly interpreted by the receiver, and to reduce the misunderstandings.
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