This news is a few weeks old, but I thought it would be cool to share... Recently at the University of California San Francisco, three members of the UCSF community were honored with the first annual 2010 Cancellor's Disability Service Award for their dedicated work to advance access for and accommodation of those with disabilities: First Annual Disability Service Awards to Honor Three Members of UCSF Community.One of the honorees was Alice Wong, a staff research associate in the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, who has been a prominent advocate for the disabled in the UCSF community and has worked to make the campus more accessible and welcoming for all people with disabilities:
While enrolled as a student, Wong served as president of the Disabilities Interest Group for six years, working in monthly meetings to expand access and raise awareness across UCSF. It was that group's advocacy that led to the establishment of the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Disabilities Issues, which Wong co-chaired for three years. Her work played a key role in the committee's efforts to create and implement design guidelines for all UCSF renovation and new construction projects, making more buildings and spaces accessible to the entire campus community.Congratulations! Impressive, inspiring work. UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann presented Alice with the award at a ceremony last month.
Her contributions over the last decade are numerous, including the conception of the first online access resource outlining accessible features of all major campus buildings, and the development of the Disability Resources website, offering a single destination of resources for the campus community.
Wong also successfully advocated for more TTY phones on the Parnassus campus, the installation of wheelchair accessible buttons inside campus elevators and signs indicating that individuals with special needs should be granted the courtesy to enter elevators first.
She is known for her creative thinking and dedication to her work advocating for the disabled, and is recognized for her extraordinary knowledgeable by her peers.
Wong currently works with the federally funded Center for Personal Assistance Services in the UCSF School of Nursing, which provides personal assistant services to enable individuals with disabilities to live and work independently.
Last July, Wong received the Mayor's Disability Council Beacon Award for her outstanding leadership at the 20th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act celebration in July 2010. The award recognized her work at UCSF and as the president of the San Francisco In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) Public Authority Governing Body. IHSS is a statewide publicly funded program providing.
