Glossary

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Agential Realism

A theoretical framework developed by physicist-philosopher Karen Barad that rejects the idea of pre-existing, independent subjects and objects, arguing instead that phenomena emerge through specific "intra-actions" between apparatus and matter. Applied to accessibility research,…

Critical Realism(also: Transcendental Realism, Critical Naturalism)

A philosophy of science developed by Roy Bhaskar that offers a middle position between positivism (reality is only what can be empirically observed) and radical constructivism (reality is entirely socially constructed). Critical realism holds that reality exists independently of…

Epistemic Injustice(also: Knowledge Injustice)

A form of injustice that occurs when someone is wronged in their capacity as a knower — either by having their testimony dismissed or undervalued (testimonial injustice) or by lacking the conceptual resources to understand their own experience (hermeneutical injustice). In…

Hermeneutical Injustice

Hermeneutical injustice, a concept developed by philosopher Miranda Fricker, is a form of epistemic injustice in which a person's experience is unintelligible to themselves or others because the collective interpretive resources of their community lack the concepts, vocabulary…

Phenomenology(also: Phenomenological Inquiry)

Phenomenology is a philosophical tradition and research methodology concerned with the structures of lived, first-person experience. Originating with Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty, it emphasizes how phenomena appear to consciousness rather than what they are in objective…

Posthumanism(also: Posthumanist Design, More-than-Human Design)

A theoretical orientation in design and HCI that decenters the human as the sole agent of value and instead considers nonhuman animals, plants, ecosystems, and even technological artifacts as participants in design contexts. Posthumanist and more-than-human framings push…

Situated Knowledge(also: Situated Knowledges)

A concept from feminist epistemology, developed by Donna Haraway, holding that all knowledge is produced from particular social, bodily, and historical positions rather than from a neutral, objective standpoint. In disability studies and accessibility research, situated…

Somaesthetics

Somaesthetics is a philosophical discipline, developed by Richard Shusterman, that treats the living, sentient, purposive body (the soma) as both a locus of aesthetic appreciation and a medium of creative self-fashioning. It integrates analytical, pragmatic, and practical…

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