Alice Wong (activist)

Alice Wong is known as disability activist, media producer, and a consultant. She is the founder and Project Coordinator of the Disability Visibility Project,[1] a project collecting oral histories of people with disabilities in the United States that is being run in coordination with StoryCorps. The Disability Visibility Project was created on the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.[2] As of 2018, the project had collected approximately 140 oral histories.[3]

Wong works on other projects such as DisabledWriters.com; as known as "DVP". It is known to be a resource to help editors connect with disabled writers and journalists, #CripLit, 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.[4]

Wong also serves as an advisory board member for APIDC, Asians and Pacific Islanders with Disabilities of California. She is also 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.[5]

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.[6]

Wong has spinal muscular atrophy, a neuromuscular disorder.[7]

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 UCSF. In 2016, Wong received the 2016 AAPD Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award, an award for emerging leaders with disabilities who exemplify leadership, advocacy, and dedication to the broader cross-disability community.[4]