Alice Wong, 1974-2025
People with disabilities lost a powerful advocate, but her effects will persist
Alice Wong, who was a writer, an editor, and someone who lived her entire life with disability, passed away 14 November 2025 in San Francisco. She used her considerable skills to make the world a better place for those with disabilities. She founded organizations, created oral history projects, and published extensively, activities that resulted in the MacArthur Foundation awarding her one of its fellowships that are often called “Genius Grants.” And she advocated with a combination of wit and wisdom that did not pull punches.
Ms. Wong received formal education at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (bachelors, 1997) and the University of California, San Fransisco (masters, 2004). Ms. Wong founded the Disability Visibility Project, an organization that promoted production and sharing of disability media and culture. She wrote and edited books that helped raise consciousness; in 2022 she published Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life to critical acclaim. President Barack Obama appointed her to serve on the National Council on Disability. The MacArthur Foundation award announcement started with this paragraph:
Alice Wong is a writer, editor, and disability justice activist cultivating a vibrant and diverse community of disabled people rooted in joy, abundance, mutual aid, and care. Wong is steeped in disability justice and uses the power of storytelling across various media platforms. She publishes personal stories that expose ableist attitudes, policies, and practices across a society that pushes disabled people to the margins. She also shares her own experiences navigating the world as a disabled person with a progressive neuromuscular disease.
Ms. Wong was born 27 March 1974 in Indianapolis to parents, Bobby Wong and Henry Wong. As Ms. Wong explained in the delightful, “A Mutant from Planet Cripton, An Origin,” she was “a bundle or weirdness”:
In 1974, a baby arrived in the suburbs of Indianapolis, Indiana from the planet Cripton. She looked like the offspring of two Chinese immigrants, Ma and Pa Wong, but something was different.
The Earth’s gravitational force made it difficult for this baby to raise her head. She couldn’t crawl and went straight from sitting to walking. Perplexed, Ma and Pa Wong took their baby to the doctor and found out: she is a mutant from Cripton!
This YouTube video from the MacArthur Foundation provided a glimpse of her view of the world:
You can find other videos on YouTube, of course. I also encourage readers to read following articles. Note that many of them were carried as news articles not formal obituaries.
“Alice Wong, Writer and Relentless Advocate for Disability Rights, Dies at 51
Born with muscular dystrophy, she received a MacArthur ‘“Genius’ grant in 2024 for her decades of calling attention to the need for equal rights for disabled people,” by Clay Risen in The New York Times;
“Alice Wong, disability rights advocate and wordsmith, dies at 51: Alice Wong, a transformational leader for disability rights and justice, who founded the Disability Visibility project to magnify disabled culture, died Nov. 14.” from the Washington Post;
Chloe Veitman, writing for NPR.org, published “Disability rights activist and author Alice Wong dies at 51”;
The “Alice Wong” entry on Wikipedia also has valuable content.