Disability rights advocate and 'cyborg oracle'

Writer and activist fought for justice with wit and candor

- BY PAIGE ST. JOHN AND YVONNE VILLARREAL

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation 'CYBORG ORACLE' Alice Wong, pictured in 2024, employed wit and creativity in her advocacy for disabled people's rights.

Alice Wong, the California disability rights activist who employed wit, creativity and at times shock to fight for justice, has died. She was 51.

The San Francisco-based radical, a self-styled “cyborg oracle,” rose to national prominence in 2013, when President Obama appointed her to the National Council on Disability. Wong attended a 2015 White House reception in virtual form as a “telepresence robot.”

“One of the things that really gives me joy is the fact that there are so many amazing, brilliant, creative disabled people out there,” Wong told comedian W. Kamau Bell on the City Arts & Lectures podcast in 2020. “But part of my rage — and it’s a very real rage — is that most people don’t really know about them.”

A prolific advocate for disability justice, Wong authored a memoir, penned numerous essays, edited two anthologies, hosted a podcast and founded the Disability Visibility Project, a platform for disabled writers and artists. Her nonpartisan #CriptheVote hashtag forced national candidates to pay attention, and in 2021 she helped prioritize access to COVID vaccines for thousands of high-risk Californians.

Wong even challenged San Francisco's attempt to ban plastic straws, pointing out that many disabled people need them.

In 2024, she was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” for calling attention to the “prejudice disabled people face and to the policies that adversely affect them." "Hi everyone, it looks like I ran out of time," Wong said in a prewritten message released after her death. "I have so many dreams that I wanted to fulfill and plans to create new stories for you....

As a kid riddled with insecurity and internalized ableism, I could not see a path forward.