Disability rights activist and author Alice Wong dies at 51

""Alice Wong was a hysterical friend, writer, activist and disability justice luminary whose influence was outsized,""

""Her media empire, the Disability Visibility Project, left an indelible mark on the cultural landscape of our country. The legacy of her work will carry on.""

""being a fierce luminary in disability justice, a brilliant writer, editor and community organizer.""

"'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 died at age 51 of an infection at the University of California, San Francisco hospital. She was a MacArthur "Genius" Award-winner and a prominent disability justice leader. Wong founded the Disability Visibility Project to highlight disabled people and disability culture through storytelling projects, social media, and partnerships with oral-history organizations. Disability Visibility Project launched in 2014 with an oral history project encouraging people with disabilities to share their stories in partnership with StoryCorps. Wong was born in 1974 to immigrant parents from Hong Kong and was diagnosed at birth with muscular dystrophy. Her work encompassed writing, editing, community organizing, and platform-building to amplify disabled voices.

Read at www.npr.org