For Alice

I woke up yesterday morning, grabbed my phone, went on Twitter, and found out that Alice Wong had passed away. And all I could do is look at the screen as my brain processed the words being shown to me and yell out "fuck, no!" Because what else is there to say really- except there is, at least for the people who don't know Alice Wong's work in the academic spaces I am in (which are sadly probably a lot). So this is my attempt to at least give you some things to think about, for Alice. 

It is of course fitting that I found out about it on Twitter. Because Disability Twitter still exists and I am still there and so are many others, as I have mentioned on here many times.  Because Twitter was where I and so many others interacted with Alice and her work. And it was interesting to see the names and faces of people I had not interacted with in a while yesterday and today. All of us mourning, sharing the immensity. It took hours for the news to make it to other social media platforms and that is an important thing to remember. Because disabled folk have to work to find spaces of collectivity, spaces that can be defiant of the isolation that the systems want to impose by sharing space, and thoughts, and grief. Alice Wong was someone whose words were backed up by deeds and actions, in a time where so many spaces are invested in empty rhetoric, Alice encouraged the doing in ways that are meaningful.  

A lot of Alice connected thoughts revolve around COVID, and how when the pandemic started, Alice helped support members of Disability Twitter as a space where folk would not feel so alone. A space where folk could talk about supports they needed, mutual aid, and other collective ways that we could meet needs at time that continues to isolate. When so many (SO MANY) in HigherEd space start sentences with "during the pandemic" like it's over when it isn't, when so many (SO MANY) refuse to even mention COVID and the reality of long COVID, Alice kept writing and sharing to make sure no one forgot. It hasn't been lost on folk that so many of the obits about Alice and her work conveniently avoid mentioning COVID and the work she did around masking awareness or awareness that Palestinian Liberation is Disability Justice.

Alice is how so many of us on Disability Twitter became connected, just like Arley did that connecting as well. It is where I met the group of folk who are still part of the disability reading group I organize online. One of the first books that the reading group read more than 4 years ago now was Disability Visibility a book edited by Alice. That reading group, inspired by Alice, and the need to share space and be in community still goes strong because it is a space that recognizes each member for their bodymind needs, and never takes anything for granted. And that is the difference between being in a disability justice informed space, and being in the socio-exclusive spaces that academe provides. 

Because disability folk and disability community in general never take things for granted. We never know when it may be the last time we get together and so we cherish those moments and make space for folk having to step away from things for a bit. Just like Alice made Disability Twitter such an expansive space for so many socio-geographically, disabled folk know to live in the now, and attuned to the now. What feels like a support need in that moment? Is it soup? (I make a lot of soup and there is something deeply connecting knowing that with a few ingredients I can support care and nourishment). Is it donating to a fund to support purchasing a new mobility devices? Is it supporting and advocating for microphones at conferences? Because the greatest strength of disability communities is learning from each other, listening to each other, and caring for each other, when so many spaces and people won't. I am part of a reading group where I live now that meets every other week in person and everyone masks. And yes we talk about the access friction that masks create because of specific disability and bodymind needs, but it is the fact that we are even talking about it and holding space for it, that warms my heart. And that's what I want to emphasize to academe, and what Alice did so well in her work, which is that just because you have the privilege to ignore or erase that accessibility and disability needs are happening around you, doesn't make it go away. We exist and you could in fact support a sense of belonging for others if you weren't so invested in protecting yourself and the systems from discomfort.

It is the power of the collective that Alice was so good at emphasizing. It was the reaffirmations of the realities for disabled folk and how those realties shift daily. And so it is really meaningful that Alice's last words were about not letting them grind you down. Because those were words for disability community folk, they were not words for those in academe who peddle in hopetimism and resiliency narratives in keynotes and leadership workshops and never mention disabled or marginalize or multi-marginalized perspectives once. They were words for the people who fight against the "just hang in there" cat posters, the people who know in the famous words of Stella Young, that "no amount of smiling at a flight of stairs has ever made it turn into a ramp".

This will never be enough, there will never be enough words to say all that Alice Wong did and supported for so many. So if this is the first time you are hearing about her I would strongly suggest you read anything linked here or the resources linked below, and find a way to speak to this body of work in your classroom spaces. As well please check in on your disabled friends and see if they may need anything for support. Do it for Alice, for as she said "You all, we all, deserve the everything and more in such a hostile, ableist environment. Our wisdom is incisive and unflinching. I'm honored to be your ancestor and believe disabled oracles like us will light the way to the future."

Change the Narrative Resources

Wong, A. (Ed.). (2024). Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire. 

Wong, A. (2023). Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life.

Alice Wong on Being Told She Wouldn't Live to Adulthood. (2023). [9 minute video]