Alice Wong, disability rights activist and writer, dies at 51

Source: NBC News/AP

Nov. 15, 2025, 5:57 PM EST


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

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

Ho called her friend a “luminary of the disability justice movement” who wanted to see a world where people with disabilities, especially ones of marginalized demographics who were people of color, LGBTQ and immigrants, could live freely and have full autonomy over their lives and decisions.

The daughter of Hong Kong immigrants, Wong was diagnosed as a small child with a progressive neuromuscular disability. She used a powered wheelchair and an assistive breathing device. On social media Ho shared a statement Wong wrote before her death in which she said never imagined her trajectory would turn out as it did, to writing, activism and more.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/obituaries/alice-wong-disability-rights-activist-writer-dies-51-rcna244142