Asian Americans with Disabilities Leading the Way

Mia Ives-Rublee is a disabled transracial adoptee who has dedicated her life’s work to civil rights activism. She began her journey as an adapted athlete, competing internationally in track, road racing, fencing, and crossfit. She obtained her Master’s in Social Work at UNC Chapel Hill and began working with disabled people to help them find work and independence in their communities at the NC Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services. Mia is best known for founding the Women’s March Disability Caucus and organizing the original Women’s March on Washington in 2017. She has worked with numerous progressive organizations on disability justice and inclusion. As a public speaker, Mia advocates on the national stage for the rights of disabled people, immigrants, and other marginalized communities.

Bio from Collective Speakers website.

Lydia X. Z. Brown is an advocate, organizer, educator, attorney, strategist, and writer. Their work focuses on addressing state and interpersonal violence targeting disabled people living at the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, faith, language, and nation. They are Policy Counsel for Disability Rights and Algorithmic Fairness for the Privacy and Data Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, and Director of Policy, Advocacy, and External Affairs for the Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network. They also founded the Fund for Community Reparations for Autistic People of Color’s Interdependence, Survival, and Empowerment.

Bio by the Asian Americans with Disabilities Initiative. 

Alice Wong is a disabled activist, media maker, and consultant. She is the Founder and Director of the Disability Visibility Project, a community partnership with StoryCorps and an online community dedicated to creating, sharing and amplifying disability media and culture created in 2014. Alice is also a co-partner in four projects: DisabledWriters.com, a resource to help editors connect with disabled writers and journalists, #CripLit, a series of Twitter chats for disabled writers with novelist Nicola Griffith, #CripTheVote, a nonpartisan online movement encouraging the political participation of disabled people with co-partners Andrew Pulrang and Gregg Beratan, and Access Is Love with co-partners Mia Mingus and Sandy Ho, a campaign that aims to help build a world where accessibility is understood as an act of love instead of a burden or an afterthought.

Bio by the Asian Americans with Disabilities Initiative. 

Shaina Ghuraya is a female Punjabi writer/director and wheelchair-user. She is a fierce activist for people with disabilities and recognizes the importance of media in shifting public perception. Shaina is also a graduate of the University of Southern California's Master of Fine Arts program in Film and Television Production. During her time at USC, she discovered her love of comedy, and began working with quirky and bold films that embrace diversity and explore intersectionality. She 

Bio by the Asian Americans with Disabilities Initiative. 

Tiffany Yu is a disability advocate, podcaster, and CEO of Diversability, a social enterprise. She first became disabled at age 9 with a physical disability. With her lived experiences as someone with a disability, she has delivered various TEDx speeches about disability and Asian American identity. The Diversability network has helped expand disability pride for thousands of people with disabilities. Her podcast, Tiffany & Yu, features conversations about wellness, impact, and leadership with others who bring social change. Tiffany currently serves on the San Francisco Mayor's Disability Council.

Bio by the Asian Americans with Disabilities Initiative. 

Mia Mingus is a writer, educator and trainer for transformative justice and disability justice. She is a queer physically disabled Korean transracial and transnational adoptee raised in the Caribbean. She works for community, interdependence and home for all of us, not just some of us, and longs for a world where disabled children can live free of violence, with dignity and love. As her work for liberation evolves and deepens, her roots remain firmly planted in ending sexual violence.

Bio by the Asian Americans with Disabilities Initiative. 

Chella Man is an artist, author, and director who identifies as Deaf, genderqueer, trans-masculine, Chinese, and Jewish. He has given talks all over the country on the intersections of art, disability, queerness, race, and healing. Furthermore, he has published a book, Continuum, participated in numerous gallery shows and artist residencies internationally, worked as a columnist for Condé Naste’s first queer publication, Them, launched a radically inclusive clothing line in collaboration with Opening Ceremony, signed as the first Deaf and trans- masculine model with IMG Models, and was casted as a superhero within Warner Brother’s DC Universe, Titan’s. He hopes to continue pushing the boundaries of what it means to be accessible, inclusive, and equal in this world.

Bio by the Asian Americans with Disabilities Initiative. 

Although Stacey is no longer with us, having passed in May 2020, we acknowledge her in this series due to her vital leadership in disability justice and the impact she will forever have on the disability community.

Born in South Korea, raised in North Carolina, and lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, Stacey Milbern’s life and activism were intertwined in her intersectional approach to organizing: She advocated for those marginalized by a fundamentally ableist world while also pointing out the disability community’s own erasure of the queer and BIPOC people within it. As a cofounder of Oakland’s Disability Justice Culture Club, Milbern helped ensure that disabled California residents weren’t imperiled when Pacific Gas & Electric mandated rolling power cutoffs to curb the spread of wildfires in 2019; at the time of her death, DJCC was distributing DIY COVID-protection kits to unhoused Bay Area residents. “My ancestors are disabled people who lived looking out of institution windows wanting so much more for themselves,” Milbern wrote in a 2019 essay for the Disability Visibility Project. “It’s because of them that I know that, in reflecting on what is a ‘good’ life, an opportunity to contribute is as important as receiving [the] supports one needs.”

Bio from BitchMedia

Sandy Ho is a queer, disabled, Asian American activist, organizer, and researcher. She is the founder of the Disability & Intersectionality Summit, a biennial national conference that centers the multiple oppressions that shape the lived experiences of disabled individuals, as told by disabled people, to create dialogue on how our society must address systemic oppressions using an intersectional approach. She is the Director of the Disability Inclusion Fund at Borealis Philanthropy, as well as a community organizer in the Boston area focused on disability justice and intersectionality.

Bio by the Asian Americans with Disabilities Initiative. 

Steve Lee is a Chinese American, disabled stand-up comedian, actor, producer, and writer. His comedy is centered around his experiences growing up in Hong Kong and the U.S. dealing with racism and living with disabilities. He uses humor to convey his belief that everyone is equal and to get people to laugh about our own shortcomings and problems in our daily lives. He is a staple at comedy clubs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, and has opened for headliners like Tom Rhodes, Tom Cotter, Brad Williams and Brent Weinbach.

Bio by the Asian Americans with Disabilities Initiative. 

Miso Kwak is a policy analyst whose work is driven by a passion for social justice. She is particularly interested in improving supports and services for people with disabilities. Miso currently serves as a project coordinator for the National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems (NCAPPS), an initiative from the Administration for Community Living and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. She oversees the day-to-day activities of NCAPPS and contributes to all aspects of the work. In the past, she played an instrumental role in starting Disability Disclosed, an inaugural student publication on disability at Harvard University.

Bio by the Asian Americans with Disabilities Initiative. 

Esmé Weijun Wang is an award-winning novelist and essayist known for the New York Times bestselling essay collection, "The Collected Schizophrenia" and "The Border of Paradise." She started her writing career focusing on disability after being diagnosed with late-stage Lyme disease in 2015. She is the founder of "The Unexpected Shape" Community for writers living with illness and disability. She holds various awards, including the Best of Young American Novelist list of 21 authors under 40 by Granta and the prestigious Whiting Award.