Drawing from her book, ‘Dwarfism, Spatiality and Disabling Experiences’ Dr Erin Pritchard explores the various social and spatial experiences of people with dwarfism. The talk demonstrates how physical and social barriers, the latter influenced by cultural representations of dwarfism, impact how they navigate through the built environment, often avoiding particular spaces. This talk offers some recommendations for creating a more inclusive built environment and argues that true disability access cannot be attained until we include a wider range of disabled people, including people with dwarfism.
Bio:
Dr. Erin Pritchard — Dr Erin Pritchard is a senior lecturer in Disability Studies at Liverpool Hope University and core member of the Centre for Culture and Disability Studies. Her first monograph, Dwarfism, Spatiality and Disabling Experiences, provides interdisciplinary approach, by drawing on theories within human geography and disability studies to explore the social and spatial experiences of people with dwarfism. Her work also centres on how cultural representations of dwarfism influence social understanding of the condition, including co-editing a special issue on representations of dwarfism for the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies. She is also an activist for the rights of people with dwarfism. In 2021 she was hired as a consultant for Disney, specialising in representations of dwarfism.
