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Alice Wong. Photo by Allison Busch Photography. |
In Memory of Alice Wong, Disability Rights Activist, Writer, and UCSF Changemaker
by Cecile Puretz, Assistant Director, Disability Resource Center, Office of Opportunity & Outreach
The UCSF Disability Resource Center mourns the loss of disability scholar, activist, community organizer, and former UCSF student and staff member Alice Wong. We celebrate and honor her profound legacy within the UCSF community—and worldwide.
During her many years at UCSF, Alice dedicated herself to advocating for greater accessibility across the campus and health system, laying the foundation for what the Disability Resource Center is today: a space that fosters disability culture, identity, and pride. Her vision lives on through initiatives such as the Disability Justice Library, the integration of disability-related curriculum in health sciences, displays of disabled artists’ work, and all efforts to eliminate physical, attitudinal, and digital barriers.
Alice’s academic and professional contributions were transformative. She earned her master’s degree in Medical Sociology in 2004 from the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the UCSF School of Nursing. While still a student, she founded the Disability Interest Group in 2002. She later served as a key member of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Disability Issues (CACDI), urging the professional schools at UCSF to incorporate disability into their cultural competency courses. Alice stated, “Disability is part of the greater continuum of diversity, and we need to allow for variation and not get so focused on what is the norm.”
Alice also spearheaded UCSF Access, a resource highlighting accessibility features across campus buildings, and advocated for critical improvements, such as wheelchair-accessible elevator buttons and text telephones for individuals with hearing disabilities. Her decade-long work at UCSF spanned three research centers: the National Center for Personal Assistance, the Disability Statistics Center, and the Community Living Policy Center. During her time with these centers, Alice further advanced inclusion efforts before shifting her focus to national and international disability advocacy.
In recognition of her contributions, Alice received the inaugural UCSF Chancellor’s Disability Service Award and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Award. Her books, including Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century and Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life, as well as her Disability Visibility podcast, continue to educate and empower.
“Alice's life's work was abundant in its seeing and caring for all people with disabilities and in amplifying their work and stories. She was a brilliant storyteller, and a purveyor of joy and empowerment. Alice’s legacy is reflected every day in the UCSF students and scholars who are engaged in emancipatory research and in building communities of care and mutual support,” said Kristen Harknett, PhD, professor and director of UCSF’s Sociology graduate program.
“Deeply compassionate and strong, Alice Wong was a trailblazer whose light—and fight—changed UCSF as well as the lives of many around the globe. UCSF is a more accessible, inclusive, and aware institution because she was a member of our community. The Office of Opportunity and Outreach grieves her death, but we celebrate her life,” said UCSF Vice Chancellor of Opportunity and Outreach Renee Navarro, PharmD, MD.
Alice’s family shared a reflection from her memoir, Year of the Tiger: “The real gift any person can give is a web of connective tissue. If we love fiercely, our ancestors live among and speak to us through these incandescent filaments glowing from the warmth of memories.”
Alice Wong will be remembered as a powerful storyteller, fierce advocate, and kind leader who leveraged her lived experience to amplify disability culture and expand the understanding of disability as an integral part of diversity.