11/17/2025
As many of our advocates look forward to the MASS Advocacy Conference later this week, we sadly learn that the world has lost a disability justice warrior, Alice Wong. We know her legacy and writings as a fierce advocate of disability rights will live on and continue to inspire us all. 🧡💛🧡 See the first comment for the letter she wrote that she wanted shared upon her passing… Alice, rest in power and pride!
For more information about Alice Wong and her projects, see http://DisabilityVisibilityProject.com.
Access Living is crestfallen today to learn of the passing of the incredible disability oracle and community builder, Alice Wong. Both sage and down-to-earth, Alice has been an absolute treasure of the human experience of our time. A disability justice activist, a writer, a steadfast friend and lover of cats and good food, Alice founded the Disability Visibility Project, an oral history project with StoryCorps. Through this project, Alice helped countless disabled people of all walks of life share their personal stories.
A 2024 MacArthur Fellow, Alice wrote a memoir, Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life (2022), and edited several collected works on disability, including Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century (2020) and Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire (2024). Each new staffer at Access Living receives a copy of her Disability Visibility book.
It is difficult to imagine today’s disability landscape without Alice’s guiding wisdom, many groundbreaking projects, and relentless gathering of storytellers. An essential part of Alice’s genius lay in simply building relationships with disabled people from all walks of life. She was a tough and courageous co-conspirator, the true embodiment of “big cat energy.” May her wisdom, humor and humanity reside in all of us as we carry on the struggle.
Image is of Alice, an Asian American woman smiling with red lipstick, an undercut hairstyle, and a blue gown with geometric designs. She is sitting in her power chair and wearing her ventilator tube. In the background are orange and black tiger stripes to reflect her “big cat energy” and to honor her memoir, Year of the Tiger. Above her is one of her quotes: “Disability is pain, struggle, brilliance, abundance and joy.” Below the quote, it says “Alice Wong 1974-2025.”
