Knowing Disability Transactionally: A Pragmatist Response to Epistemic Injustice

: Elizabeth Barnes argues that ableist ways of conceiving of disability structure what the disabled can come to know and effectively make known regarding their lived experiences. She relies upon the social epistemology of Miranda Fricker to make sense of these processes, interpreting them as manifestations of epistemic injustice. I read Shannon Sullivan’s critique of Fricker and political adaptation of John Dewey’s concept of transaction with and against Barnes’ account of epistemic injustice. My argument is that this reading of Barnes and Sullivan can enhance the former’s account of the harms of epistemic injustice as they accrue to the disabled.