“This may feel true for every era, but I believe I am living in a time where disabled people are more visible than ever before. And yet while representation is exciting and important, it is not enough. I want and expect more. We all should expect more. We all deserve more. There must be depth, range, nuance to disability representation in media. This is the current challenge and opportunity for the publishing industry and popular culture at large.”

—Alice Wong, from her Introduction to “Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century”

ALT TEXT: Illustration with a light blue background featuring pieces of watermelon cut into triangular shapes and watermelon seeds. In the center against a white square background, text reads “Crips for eSims for Gaza.”

Portrait of Alice Wong by Georgia Webber

Contemporary Calgary, Mohkinstis, Canada

As part of the exhibition “Resistance & Respiration”

January 2024

May we all receive the help we need to make our lives a little more bearable.

Alice Wong, “How I Spend My Caturdays (and Nights) at Home” from Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life

Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life by Alice Wong is a scrapbook-like memoir by a disabled activist and icon, the editor of Disability Visibility and partner in the creation of #CriptheVote, among other achievements. So I was excited to dig into her story. 

This isn't what this book is for (remotely), but I did end up confronting some serious internalized ableism of my own as I read, thinking about my own assumptions and thoughts about my future as a chronically ill person. Wong's book digs into the idea that we can't choose whether or not to be an activist when we have a chronically ill, in-pain, or disabled body: politics becomes part and parcel of trying to survive. 

Wong's memoir is vividly creative—and she emphasizes, again and again, the power of adaptation and creativity that disabled people have in their day-to-day lives. She also shows how accessibility really is rooted in willingness and openness to listen, to adapt, and to commit to experimenting to help improve the lives of others. Her creativity is vivid in its multi-media memoir that uses so much to add to its story. A beautiful comic chapter illustrated by Sam Schäfer about living like a cat; scanned copies of forms that she uses to struggle to access necessary services from the government or Medicaid; chats, quotes, and photos, all among the essays reprinted and written fresh. 

Wong really emphasizes the day-to-day uncertainty of being disabled, including things many of us wouldn't think about—her BPAP ventilator means she's dependent on a machine for oxygen, which makes her terrified of power outages. She digs into the issues of performative mourning, how hard it was for her to get a vaccine, the ableist comments of people who decide her life isn't worth living, and much more. It's an excellent memoir, front to back. 

Content warnings for ableism, medical trauma, body shaming, hate crime, violence.

🚨 Call to action against the eugenics and oppression Disabled people continue to face. 🚨

[emergency siren emojis]

Please email UCSF Health to demand mask PPE requirements in healthcare.

This is the reality Disabled people have been facing during this now 4 year battle with COVID. Masks work. COVID never ended.

It is eugenics. We are being killed off. And no one seems to care. We can't do this alone.

More info and email address in the link.

datamine spoilers!!

charmer

stealing mc's friends

'see? there's nothing cursed about the amulet.'

last family photo

bewitched

Book haul but it's presents from my last birthday 🎂

I dread the day Sis can no longer care for me at home. My insurance pays out roughly $800 a month for my home care, all of which she puts right back into supporting me. And she does tons of extra stuff she isn’t paid for. When I get worse (or Sis gets too old) I won’t be able to live at home anymore. The system actively works against disabled people staying in their own homes, after all. & I can guarantee I’ll be way too young for a nursing home when it happens to me. It definitely shouldn’t have to happen to Alice Wong yet. Listen, if I’ve ever taught you a single thing about disability rights, chances are I (directly or indirectly) learned it from Alice. She won’t be able to keep up the fight for disability justice if she is forced into a nursing home. Plus, most importantly, she *wants* to stay at home, of course she does. Please, let’s help her out! She needs some time to get back her strength. That’ll never happen in a home. She deserves better. For all she’s done for us. Keep fighting, Alice!

My dear friend Alice Wong has been going through a very very hard time as of late so I decided to make her a gift. I've made a couple of drawings for her but this one I really put my all into this one. Alice has been my friend and mentor for several years. I am just sending all of my love to her <3

[ID: a digital portrait of an east asian woman who has black hair pulled back. She is wearing red lipstick, a tiger themed gray sweatshirt, and orange pants as she uses a breathing bi-PAP device and is sitting in her power wheelchair. The background is art nouveau inspired and tiger stripe themed with magnolias and tiger lilies.]

"Anyone can become disabled at any time. We are people just like everyone else.

The time needs to be over for people to be sent to institutions because there aren't options in the community or because people think it's cheaper or more protected.

It wastes people's lives and, in the long run, keeps them from contributing.

There's no such thing as a good institution."

- Disability Visibility edited by Alice Wong: We can't go back by Ricardo T. Thornton Sr.

Daily Book - Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century

Disability Visibility ed. Alice Wong Adult Health / Identity, 2020, 309 pg personal essays by disabled / neurodiverse authors, including an asexual female author, poc authors, etc One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent—but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together this urgent, galvanizing collection of contemporary essays by disabled people.

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Who we love and how we love are inherently political. We declare our kinship through our actions and words in both explicit and subtle ways.

Alice Wong, “Let’s Recognize Why #AccessIsLove” from Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life

The amazing Alice Wong follows SpoonieStrong on Twitter (I used to post a lot). 💙🥄

Our next book club meeting is April 13 at 7:30pm Eastern and we will be discussing the first half of Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life by Alice Wong.

We meet online at https://meet.jit.si/ReadingQueerly

Whether you read the book, didn't finish the book, or didn't start the book, our meetings are open to everyone interested in a laid back discussion about themes, opinions, and personal experiences in relation to the books we read. We try our best to create a comfortable, safe space for queer community, and if you have any questions or comments we would love to hear from you. Hope to see you there!