A compilation of essays, interviews, and podcast episodes posted to the Disability Visibility Project (alt link 1, 2) site in 2020 and 2021. Compiling this material into a “syllabus” in January 2022, Wong writes, “Since March 2020 I have been collecting strands of disabled wisdom about the pandemic and trying to gather, weave, and share them. Disabled, fat, older, poor, immunocompromised, and chronically ill folks have been oracles well before this global public health disaster and continue to this day as institutions and leaders treat marginalized communities as disposable. With the Disability Visibility Project I feel a keen urgency to publish as many pieces about the pandemic because our perspectives and warnings are not heeded. And here we are today with eugenics and systemic ableism displayed nakedly upon the altar of capitalism and white supremacy.” — Mara Mills
Backup Media:
Format: Blog Post, Resource
Creator: Alice Wong, Disability Visibility Project
Link: https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2022/01/09/high-risk-pandemic-stories-a-syllabus/
Date: January 9, 2022
Captured: 5-Aug-2025
Title: High-Risk Pandemic Stories: A Syllabus
Content:
Since March 2020 I have been collecting strands of disabled wisdom about the pandemic and trying to gather, weave, and share them. Disabled, fat, older, poor, immunocompromised, and chronically ill folks have been oracles well before this global public health disaster and continue to this day as institutions and leaders treat marginalized communities as disposable.
With the Disability Visibility Project I feel a keen urgency to publish as many pieces about the pandemic because our perspectives and warnings are not heeded. And here we are today with eugenics and systemic ableism displayed nakedly upon the altar of capitalism and white supremacy. I resent the implication that we have to prove our value and reveal our traumas in order to be seen as human and worthy of ‘care.’
We are all doing what we can with what we have. I hope some of the links of high-risk pandemic stories below will be useful.
We are not alone.
Recent work
Collection of stories, resources, and Tweets by disabled people about the pandemic since 2020.
From The Access Issue co-edited with Evette Dionne for Bitch Media
Shot Chaser: What Does It Take to Achieve Vaccine Equity? by Diana Cejas
The Complex Future of Post-Pandemic Work by Julia Metraux
2020-21 DVP interviews
Q&A with Andres “Jay” Molina and Alexis Neophytides (alt link)
Food Insecurity & COVID-19: Interview with Héctor M. Ramírez (alt link)
Q&A with Tory Cross (alt link)
Q&A with Sabrina Epstein (alt link)
Q&A with Ingrid Tischer (alt link)
2020-21 Guest essays for DVP
Fatphobia, Ableism, and the COVID-19 Pandemic by Finn Gardiner (alt link)
Disabled Communities in the COVID-19 Pandemic by Amy Gaeta (alt link)
Reasons to be Angry During a Pandemic by Hannah Soyer (alt link)
A Paradoxical History of Black Disease by Cyrée Jarelle Johnson (alt link)
My Life Has Quality by Elsa R. Sjunneson (alt link)
Yom HaShoah in the times of COVID-19 by Zipporah Arielle (alt link)
Cripping The Resistance: No Revolution Without Us by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (alt link)
What the Disabled Community Offered the World by Kaalyn M. (alt link)
And Now Here We Are by Sam Schäfer (alt link)
My Year of Nothing but Everything by Emily Ackerman (alt link)
Moving From Survival by Sandy Ho (alt link)
High-Risk Vaccine Hesitancy by Brianne Benness (alt link)
Accessibility and the Lack Thereof in the Film Industry by Carolyn Hinds (alt link)
How Disabled Mutual Aid Is Different Than Abled Mutual Aid by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (alt link)
2020-21 Disability Visibility podcast episodes
Ep 74: Coronavirus and Caregiving with Heather Watkins and Dawn Gibson (transcript)
Ep 74a: Coronavirus and Spirituality with Elliot Kukla (transcript)
Ep 75: Coronavirus and Disaster Planning with Germán Luis Parodi and Valerie Novack (transcript)
Ep 81: Bioethics with Joe Stramondo (transcript)
Ep 85: Fat Liberation with Max Airborne and Caleb Luna (transcript)
Ep 93: Indigenous Disabled Creators with Johnnie Jae (transcript)
Ep 94: Healthcare Rationing with Britney Wilson (transcript)
Ep 95: Black Doctors with Disabilities with Dr. Justin Bullock (transcript)
Articles by me and other interviews
“It’s My Body and I’ll Live if I Want To”
‘It Just Burns Me Up’: Disability Activist Alice Wong Reminds California This Pandemic Is Far From Over (alt link 1, 2)
“I’m disabled and need a ventilator to live. Am I expendable during this pandemic?”
Disabled Oracles and the Coronavirus (alt link)
Freedom for Some Is Not Freedom for All (alt link)
There Is No One Way (alt link 1, 2)
Message from the Future: Disabled Oracle Society (alt link)
The Political Is Personal (alt link 1, 2)
Voters With Disabilities Face Barriers in 2020 From COVID-19 (alt link)
Night of Ideas keynote on access post-pandemic (alt link)
Democracy Now feature: “Disabled Advocates Demand Better Vaccine Access as They Face Greater Risks of Dying from COVID-19” (alt link)
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