Alice Wong (activist)

{{Short description|American disability rights activist (born 1974)}}

{{Infobox person

|name = Alice Wong

|image = AWong (cropped).jpg

|alt = Alice Wong, a woman wearing a colorblock pink and orange top, sits in her wheelchair in a park on a sunny day

|caption = Wong pictured in 2024

|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1974|3|27}}

|birth_place = Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.

|death_date =

|death_place =

|occupation = Activist, journalist

|years_active = Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (BA)
University of California, San Francisco (MA)

}}

Alice Wong (born March 27, 1974) is an American disability rights activist based in San Francisco, California.

Early life and education

Wong was born in the suburbs of Indianapolis, Indiana, to parents who had immigrated to the US from Hong Kong.{{cite web |last1=Wong |first1=Alice |title=A Mutant from Planet Cripton, An Origin |url=https://thenerdsofcolor.org/2014/04/03/a-mutant-from-planet-cripton-an-origin/ |website=The Nerds of Color |accessdate=23 October 2020 |language=en |date=3 April 2014}} She was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a neuromuscular disorder.{{cite web|url=https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2016/03/402181/alice-wong-wins-national-disabilities-organization-award| title=Alice Wong Wins National Disabilities Organization Award| author=Mitzi Baker| publisher=University of California San Francisco| date=2016-03-22| accessdate=2017-02-28}} Wong stopped walking at the age of seven or eight.

Wong attended Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, where she earned a BA in English and sociology in 1997.{{cite web |title=Alumni & Giving |url=https://liberalarts.iupui.edu/alumni-giving/index.html |website=School of Liberal Arts |accessdate=23 October 2020}} She received a master's degree from the University of California, San Francisco in medical sociology in 2004.{{cite web |title=Sociology graduate Alice Wong publishes NYT Opinion Piece {{!}} Sociology Doctoral Program |url=https://sociology.ucsf.edu/news/sociology-graduate-alice-wong-publishes-nyt-opinion-piece |website=sociology.ucsf.edu |accessdate=23 October 2020}}

Career

File:Alice Wong participated at the 25th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act via robot (cropped).jpg

Wong is the founder and Project Coordinator of the Disability Visibility Project (DVP),{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/alice-wong-sets-out-chronicle-disability-history-n184961|title=Alice Wong Sets Out to Chronicle Disability History - NBC News|website=NBC News |date=20 August 2014 |publisher=|accessdate=3 November 2016}} a project collecting oral histories of people with disabilities in the US that is run in coordination with StoryCorps. The Disability Visibility Project was created before the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.{{cite web|url=https://talkpoverty.org/2015/07/30/telling-stories-people-with-disabilities/|title=Telling Our Stories: Why I Launched the Disability Visibility Project|date=30 July 2015|publisher=|accessdate=3 November 2016}} As of 2018, the project had collected approximately 140 oral histories.{{Cite web|url=https://www.adolescent.net/a/the-political-visibility-of-disability-an-interview-with-alice-wong|title=The visibility of disability: an interview with activist Alice Wong|website=www.adolescent.net|access-date=2019-03-09}}

Wong works the Disabled Writers project, which is funded by a grant from Wong and The Disability Project.{{Cite web|title=About Us – Disabled Writers|url=https://disabledwriters.com/about-us/|access-date=2020-10-11|language=en-US}} Disabled Writers is a resource to help editors connect with disabled writers and journalists. #CripLit, is a series of Twitter chats for disabled writers with novelist Nicola Griffith, and #CripTheVote, a nonpartisan online movement encouraging the political participation of disabled people.{{Cite web|url=https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/about/|title=About|date=2014-06-03|website=Disability Visibility Project|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-09}} She discusses her activism in Narrabase.{{Cite web |last=Wong |first=Alice |date=November 16–21, 2016 |title=Social Media Narrative: Issues in Contemporary Practice |url=https://www.narrabase.net/alice.html |access-date=November 21, 2022 |website=Narrabase}}

Wong serves as an advisory board member for Asians and Pacific Islanders with Disabilities of California (APIDC). She was a presidential appointee to the National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency which advises the president, Congress, and other federal agencies on disability policies, programs, and practices, from 2013 to 2015.{{cite web|last=Cisneros|first=Lisa|date=January 30, 2013|title=President Obama Appoints Alice Wong to National Council on Disability|url=https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2013/01/13465/president-obama-appoints-alice-wong-national-council-disability|archive-url=|archive-date=|accessdate=3 November 2016|website=University of California, San Francisco|publisher=}}{{Cite web|last=Powell|first=Angel|date=January 10, 2019|title=The visibility of disability: an interview with activist Alice Wong|url=https://www.adolescent.net/a/the-political-visibility-of-disability-an-interview-with-alice-wong|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=August 14, 2020|website=Adolescent.net|quote=I served one term as a member of the National Council on Disability from 2013-2015.}}

In 2015, Wong attended the reception at the White House for the 25th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act via telepresence robot. She was the first person to visit the White House and the President by robot presence.{{Cite web|url=https://blog.sfgate.com/lshumaker/2015/07/22/san-franciscos-alice-wongs-historical-white-house-visit/|title=San Francisco's Alice Wong's historical White House visit|first=Laura|last=Shumaker |date=Jul 22, 2015|website=Laura Shumaker|accessdate=Nov 24, 2020}}

In 2023, Wong voiced Alice, a fictionalized version of herself, in the second season of the Netflix series Human Resources.https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/about/

Awards

For her leadership on behalf of the disability community, Wong received the Mayor's Disability Council Beacon Award in 2010, the first-ever Chancellor's Disability Service Award in 2010, and the 2007 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award at her alma mater of UCSF. In 2016, Wong received the 2016 American Association of People with Disabilities Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award, an award for emerging leaders with disabilities who exemplify leadership, advocacy, and dedication to the broader cross-disability community. Wong was selected as a Ford Foundation Disability Futures Fellow in 2020.{{Cite web|title=Disability Futures Fellows|url=https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/investing-in-individuals/disability-futures-fellows/|access-date=2020-11-03|website=Ford Foundation|language=en}} The same year Wong was on the list of the BBC's 100 Women announced on 23 November 2020.{{Cite news|date=2020-11-23|title=BBC 100 Women 2020: Who is on the list this year?|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-55042935|access-date=2020-11-23}} In 2021 Alice Wong won "Best Supporting Actor" at the New Jersey Web Fest for her performance in Someone Dies In This Elevator.{{Cite web |title=2021 Award Winners |url=https://www.newjerseywebfest.com/2021-award-winners |access-date=2022-04-20 |website=New Jersey Web Fest |language=en}}

In 2024, Wong was named a MacArthur Fellow.{{cite web |last1=Blair |first1=Elizabeth |date=1 October 2024 |title=Here's who made the 2024 MacArthur Fellows list |url=https://www.npr.org/2024/10/01/nx-s1-5131324/2024-macarthur-fellows |website=NPR |access-date=1 October 2024}}

Bibliography

2018: Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People. Ed.
2020: Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Ed.
2021: Disability Visibility (Adapted for Young Adults): 17 First-Person Stories for Today. Delacorte Press.
2022: Year of The Tiger: An Activist's Life. Vintage.
2024: Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Ed.

References

External links

[https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2016/06/27/finding-dory-disability-culture-and-collective-access/ "Finding Dory, Disability Culture, and Collective Access"]. Disability Visibility Project. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
[https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/podcast/ Disability Visibility podcast]

Category:1974 births

Category:American disability rights activists

Category:American writers with disabilities

Category:Living people

Category:American bloggers

Category:Activists from San Francisco

Category:Place of birth missing (living people)

Category:American women bloggers

Category:Activists from Indiana

Category:People with spinal muscular atrophy

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:21st-century American writers