Epistemic 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 accessibility research, epistemic injustice may occur when researchers use large language models as substitutes for disabled participants, effectively replacing lived experience with synthetic data. It can also occur when disability communities' expertise about their own needs is dismissed in favor of researcher or clinical perspectives.