The purpose of this chapter is to present a feminist-pragmatist philosophical argument as to the significance of broadening the body of mainstream academic knowledge. Academic disciplines have been slow in adjusting their knowledge basein the light of societal, technological, political and other developments and their grassroots movements. Even in the 21st century, Jane Addams’ calls for social justice, improvedliving conditions, and quality education based on lived experience and rigorous knowledge seem almost subversive, with academics still debating whether for instance activism or other forms of knowledge should inform theories.Unsurprisingly, hierarchical knowledge systems have alwaysconstituted sites for ‘others’ to overcome barriers to participation and recognition in such systems, in a literal, epistemological and ontological sense. Nancy Fraser's concept of recognition and Addams' concept of research-based activism for social change here meet with crip theorist Alison Kafer (2013) for critical thought about the different meanings of participation, and change in transformative spaces, a concept that harks back to the early days of feminist pragmatism. I argue that any effort to improve participation in higher education must entail advocacy for structures and contents that encourage the use of participatory methodologies that enable disabled academics to transcend the qualitative and quantitative, the medical model and social model divides that narrow possibilities for the type of future envisaged not only by crip queer theorists but by 19^th century women activists that fought to take their lived experience into the public sphere. By proactively seeking out and incorporating spaces for transformative learning and scholarship, ableism in academia, based on prejudice and historically flawed reasoning, will not only be challenged but increasingly rejected.