Disability rights activist and author Alice Wong dies at 51

Alice Wong, a disability rights activist and author whose independence and writing inspired others, has died. She was 51.

Wong died of an infection Friday at a hospital in San Francisco, said Sandy Ho, a close friend who has been in touch with Wong's family.

The daughter of Hong Kong immigrants, Wong was born with muscular dystrophy. She used a powered wheelchair and an assistive breathing device.

Ho shared a statement on social media that Wong wrote before her death in which she said she never imagined her trajectory would turn out as it did, to writing, activism and more.

The legacy of Wong's work is that people with disabilities “speak for themselves and that nobody speaks for us,” Ho said.

Wong was among the 2024 class of fellows of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, recipients of the “genius grant.”