Overview
- Wong died Friday of an infection at UCSF Hospital in San Francisco, according to friend Sandy Ho, who shared Wong’s prewritten farewell on her social media accounts.
- She founded the Disability Visibility Project in 2014 with StoryCorps, producing hundreds of oral histories now archived at the Library of Congress.
- Her national recognition included a 2024 MacArthur Fellowship and a 2013 appointment to the National Council on Disability, plus a 2015 White House appearance via telepresence robot.
- Wong’s advocacy spanned the #CripTheVote campaign, efforts to prioritize vaccines for high‑risk people, calls for masking in healthcare, and opposition to bans on plastic straws relied on by many disabled people.
- Born to Hong Kong immigrants and living with muscular dystrophy, she used a powered wheelchair and assistive breathing technology, defied early life‑expectancy predictions, and is remembered by family and colleagues as a fierce luminary.