Epistemic historising and the pillars of independent living

This article explores epistemic injustices faced by disabled people, and particularly by the members of the Independent Living (IL) movement – a new social movement that emerged in the late 1960s to help disabled people gain control over their lives by organising disability support in ways that enhance self-determination. It is argued that although the IL movement was successful in informing international human rights legislation, as epitomised by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the subsequent global adoption and mainstreaming of the treaty has been accompanied by widespread misappropriation of the IL framework. The analysis then suggests that the activity of ‘epistemic historising’ could help resist such misuses of grassroots knowledges. A methodology for effective epistemic historising is elaborated and applied to archival materials, helping construct an epistemic history of the ‘pillars of IL’ – the key supports and accommodations intended to make IL possible. On this basis, three methodological principles of effective epistemic historising are explored in depth – authorship, allyship, and relevance.