Epistemic Oases and the Disability Rights Movement

Abstract

Historically, people with disabilities have been denied the agency to create their own narratives about their lived experiences. This silencing has led to cultural misunderstandings of disability that have contributed to institutionalism and other physical and epistemic harms, casting disability to the lower rungs of society. The powerful impacts of the disability rights movement, including deinstitutionalization, were made possible by grassroots groups of disabled activists who worked in community with each other and formed what we describe as epistemic oases. An epistemic oasis is a localized group of individuals with a shared marginalized identity through which hermeneutical resources are developed that lead to collective resistance. We draw on Fricker’s (2007) and Pohlhaus’ (2020) work on epistemic injustice and identify examples of epistemic oases that led to prominent events throughout the disability rights movement, resulting in positive political change. We examine the communities developed at Camp Janed, the University of California, Berkeley, and Gallaudet University and contend that these are examples of epistemic oases that fostered collective resistance in the twentieth century.

Keywords: Epistemic injustice, disability rights movement, disability studies, epistemic oasis, critical disability studies