Accessism: An Epistemology of Exposure and Accessibility

This article introduces Accessism: An Epistemology of Exposure and Accessibility, a structural framework that foregrounds epistemic access in knowledge creation. While classical epistemology has emphasised justification, belief, and truth, it has largely overlooked the structural conditions under which knowledge becomes available to a subject. Accessism holds that knowledge depends on exposure to informational, cultural, linguistic, and institutional channels.Ignorance may be caused by structural inaccessibility rather than cognitive failure or irrationality. This theory articulates foundational axioms, proposes a model of knowledge formation mediated by access and exposure, situates itself within the rationalist, empiricist, and critical traditions, addresses possible objections, and explores normative implications for education, technology, and cross-cultural understanding. By emphasising accessibility as an essential precondition for knowing, Accessism extends epistemology into a global, structurally aware, and ethically sensitive domain.