Alice Wong

One of my heroes died this week, Alice Wong. She once said:

Disabled people know what it means to be vulnerable and interdependent. We are modern day oracles. It's time people listened to us.

She was magnificent and I loved that she made me uncomfortble. She challenged everything and could imagine a world where love and care were so expansive that the very ideas of stratifications based on ability were incomprehensible. It was a place where everyone could have all they need and would be invested in others having all they need, too.

I believe it was Alice who first made me understand the limitations of the word inclusive. The implication that it is the the "haves" making accomodations for the "have nots." Instead Alice made me think of the ways we can all be more expansive, so that the circle of concern was always widening.