Photo Courtesy of Eddie Hernandez Photography
Photo Description: The header photo depicts a portrait of Alice Wong who is smiling with a mask that is connected to a gray tube over her nose, and she is wearing a blue blouse with shapes and lines that are orange, black, yellow, and red. She is sitting in her power wheelchair.
In a two-fold event, Alice Wong, disabled activist, media maker, and writer, visited Skidmore College on Zoom. Wong is the editor of the anthology, Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, which is a collection of essays written by disabled authors. As the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, she manages “an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture.” Additional projects that she co-partners are DisabledWriters.com (medium where editors connect with disabled writers and journalists), #CripLit (Twitter chats for disabled writers), #CriptheVote (nonpartisan movement for disabled people’s political participation), and Access is Love (campaign for accessibility as an act of love).
On Monday, October 4, the Dance Department Chair Sarah DiPasquale, English Assistant Professor Nick Junkerman, and Director of Student Academic Services Jamin Totino facilitated the “In Conversation with Alice Wong” event. Professor and Arthur Zankel Executive Director of Arts Administration David C. Howson organized the event. Wong requires ASL interpreters and closed captioning in all of her virtual visits. Kate B and Keara, the two ASL interpreters were present during the duration of the webinar, and Janyce worked on the captioning. Students Aymon Langlois ’23 and Caroline Shea ’22 introduced Wong. They provided background on Wong’s career and her awards and contributions.
The core of Wong’s conversation involved the subjects of storytelling and representation. When speaking about her anthology, she clarified that she wasn’t giving anyone a voice, rather she was opening up space for others to share their stories. “Everybody has a voice,” Wong said. “It’s a privilege to amplify those stories. You do have a story to tell. You are valuable.” Her anthology is an “invitation” for others to delve into more disability literature and work. In a world where the representation of disability is heavily white dominated, she advocates for more storytelling and decentering of whiteness. “There is a lack of representation in disability with people of color” and there is “centering of whiteness,” Wong stated. “There’s some vicious hierarchy of oppression that keeps people silent.”
In regard to storytelling, Wong casts herself in the role of a “time traveler.” “I’m speaking to the future,” Wong reflected, “Don’t forget about us.” She advocated for the pressing need to document history and stories by disabled people because of the world’s tendency to prioritize able-bodied stories. But, of course, she underlines that storytelling must be done on the storyteller's timeline: when they are ready and comfortable to share.
Wong also brought up the urgency for more accessibility and cultivation of community and partnership. She posed the questions “How do we make things more accessible?” and “Who is responsible for access?” Referring to one of her projects, Access is Love, Wong likens giving access to an act of love. When the world denies disabled people rightful accessibility in spaces, there is an intentional harmful othering and exclusion occurring as well as the shutting out of learning. Being exposed to multiple perspectives allows for more understanding and “learning empowers,” Wong propelled.
During the question and answer portion of the event, Wong challenged the audience to reflect on how we use language—the types of words and phrases in our vernacular. An example being “crazy […] language can be ableist,” Wong said. Embedded in our language are ableist words, which associate negativity and immorality with disability. She urged us to be mindful of the words that are used because they can be highly offensive and demeaning.
Wong’s insightful remarks highlight the necessity of more accessibility, representation, storytelling, and more love. There’s so much work to be done in the future, but the first steps are listening and allowing space for disabled people to enter conversations, display their work, and gain recognition.
After the ending remarks of gratitude on part of the professors, Wong concluded the event with the hopeful phrase: “To the future!”
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In the following evening on October 5, Alice Wong held a more intimate class for English majors and minors where she spoke about her writing process, her thoughts on writing, and her advocacy for accessibility and more interrogation of overcoming narratives. English professor Susannah Mintz moderated the class, and the ASL interpreter, Kate B, was present.
At the beginning of this meeting, a student asked Wong about her writing process. Wong shared her favorite and most comfortable genre to write in: essays. “They are time sensitive with a convergence of moment and thoughts [and it offers] something new to the conversation,” Wong said. As for her writing process, she stressed “giving myself the luxury of taking my time—slowing down helps to give ideas you’ve never thought about.” She encourages spending time with your thoughts and not rushing your ideas. She also gave helpful advice about paying attention to the audience, what you want to leave your readers with, and what you want to say.
“What is burning inside of you,” Wong posed. Her question resonated with me. I thought about how important intentionality and compassion are in my writing. If you do not devote genuine effort and intentionality into what you write about, your writing reflects that lack of sentiment.
In connection with language and audience, Wong critiqued the lack of accessibility, and she called for changes. “Videos should have captions, use symbols or images to communicate stories—how do we communicate to all kinds of audiences?”, Wong stated. She stressed “more attention to all kinds of disabilities, makes things much clearer and accessible.” Wong voiced how able-bodied people tend to forget about disabled people when they do not consider whom they are leaving out of the conversation.
She reflected on her own voice. “I think about my voice, it’s not always easy to understand. I want to push and make people uncomfortable,” Wong said. She called for people to take the time to understand and feel unfamiliar because there is something to learn. Alice reminded us that there would be the possibility of more acceptance and understanding if people took the time to get to know others and listen to what they have to say.
Furthermore, Wong spoke on the problematic nature of overcoming narratives in the publishing industry. “I want to challenge the notion of what kind of narratives they push,” Wong stated. What Wong refers to is the phenomenon of authors writing inspirational narratives of overcoming their disability to create publishable content, but in reality, it propels the harmful narrative of disability being something that needs to be overcome. Wong pushed back on that belief and championed the idea that disability should not be viewed as needing to be changed.
Wong also shared her upcoming memoir titled, Year of the Tiger, slated to be released next year. “I hope you find it fun, laugh a lot, [and] feel a little uncomfortable,” Wong shared. “I wrote it for me.” Her memoir shares her own story—authentically and comfortably. She revealed a glimpse into her process of writing the memoir. “I was determined to make the process fun for me,” she said.
The last note she ended on was encouraging and thought-provoking for the writers and readers in the Zoom room. “Think of writing as playful, not labor,” she said. Wong reminded us to find the joy in writing and to do so with genuine intentions.