Activity Spaces of Dwarfs: Research via the Internet

Literature devoted to the concept of activity space occupies an important place in the field of human geography. Researchers have found that spatial experience is affected by characteristics such as race, gender, handicaps and social stigma. However, absent from this literature is an examination of the activity spaces of dwarfs. Dwarfism raises important geographical questions regarding the social constructs and physical constraints faced by individuals of extremely short stature. For this project, questionnaires were posted on an Internet listserver for dwarfs. People who identified themselves as dwarfs responded to a variety of questions about the physical and social aspects of their activity spaces. Qualitative analysis ofthe questionnaires suggests that while the respondents appear to have a normal range of activities, their activity spaces are affected to varying degrees by their dwarfism.