Reframing Universal Access to Information through Accessism: A Structural Epistemological Validation of Grenon et al.’s Conceptual Model

Information access is essential to inclusion and participation, but its epistemological significance is understudied. This study theoretically validates Accessism-based information access and understanding. Grenon et al. suggest a multidimensional framework of availability, accessibility, acceptability, cost, and usability, however this research contends that these dimensions implicitly imply knowledge production structural circumstances. The study uses qualitative conceptual analysis to map each dimension into the epistemic sequence from information to knowledge, based on Accessism, which holds that knowing depends on accessibility and exposure. The findings show that availability and cost facilitate access, accessibility and acceptability mediate exposure and engagement, and usability is the result of successful epistemic interaction. The absence of any of these dimensions disturbs epistemic processes, causing structural ignorance rather than cognitive failure. By recreating the model within an Accessist hierarchy, the study shows that information access is an epistemic infrastructure rather than a communication system function.The study bridges epistemology and information design, improving theory and practice. It develops Accessism as a meta-epistemological paradigm for access studies and expands Grenon et al.’s model. To enable knowledge, the paper concludes that expanding access to information is not simply an issue of inclusion but also a fundamental prerequisite for epistemically informed design, policy, and research.