Before understanding cripistemology, the word epistemology must be understood. According to the University of Sheffield, “Epistemology is the theory of knowledge. It is concerned with the mind’s relation to reality.” (University of Sheffield, n.d.) In simpler terms, it is the knowledge of knowledge.

Cripistemology then embodies epistemology, but instead of a universal understanding of knowledge, takes into account knowledge from disabled bodies. When referencing disability, Johnson and McRuer are adamant, “The term expands the focus from physical disability to the sometimes-elusive crip subjectivities informed by psychological, emotional, and other invisible or undocumented disabilities” (Johnson & McRuer, 2014, p. 134).

Cripistemology, then, is the knowledge of those with disabilities. This knowledge and the social advocacy surrounding the uplifting of minoritized voices is highlighted in the zine to the left of this definition. Cartoonist and self-titled cripistemologist Bianca Xunise features the struggle for disabled voices to be normalized.

(3Arts Chicago Artists, 2023)

While the concept of "hysteria" is no longer recognized as a medical diagnosis (deleted in 1980 from the DSM), intellectual segregation was supported by science into the late 1800's. The stigma and "hysterical" symptoms continue to be treated by Western medicine today (Mollow, 2014, p.192).

These undocumented disabilities are most often diagnosed in women,

Health-care practitioners...dismiss physical and emotional suffering as "stress" or "attention-seeking behaviour". In the media, our impairments are derided as "fashionable illnesses" and "diseases du jour"...fabricating our disabilities to obtain undeserved "entitlements" (Mollow, 2014, p 186).

In the late 19th century, it was not out of the ordinary to use a hysteria diagnosis as the justification for violence against black male sexuality. Violence was an effort to delineate and manage all human bodies that would prepare society for the purification and restoration of the human race (McWhorter, 2009).

[W]hat truths are covered over by the downplaying or denial of connections between disability and suffering.

-Anna Mollow

(Yahoo Finance, 2021)

Crip Technoscience is the study of using scientific systems and devices to normalize the day-to-day life of folks with disabilities. Doing so, Johnson & McRuer argue that “…science and technology can be used to both produce and dismantle injustice.” (Johnson & McRuer, 2014, p. 2) This injustice posed by Johnson & McRuer is that of normalizing forces imposed by non-disabled bodies. Additionally, this injustice can only be dismantled when wielded by disabled bodies. Hamraie & Fritsch elaborate on this point noting,

“We contrast crip technoscience with mainstream “disability technoscience” as a field of traditional expert relations and practices concerned with designing for disabled people rather than with or by disabled people.” (Hamraie & Fritsch, 2019, pp. 3-4)

When wielded by disabled bodies, this hegemonic structure of disability and capitalism is eliminated. Thus, hopefully reducing the continued exploitation and “abnormal” subjugation of disabled bodies.

A fantastic example of Crip Technoscience is that of a Nike shoe made in collaboration with a teenager with a disability.

In the summer of 2012, Matthew Walzer, a teen with cerebral palsy, wrote a letter to the CEO of Nike, highlighting a need for athletic footwear made for people with disabilities…. The response, likely larger than Walzer could have imagined, was a design collaboration with Nike’s Tobie Hatfield to create the adaptive Nike FlyEase shoe” (Design Museum, n.d.)

This shoe, co-designed by Matthew, allowed people with disabilities impacting their mobility to not only alleviate the effort needed to put on shoes but also wear a normalizing force instead of a medical device on their bodies.