Making Contact Disability Visibility: Celebrating the Voice of Alice Wong
This episode honors the life and legacy of Alice Wong (Mar 27, 1974-Nov 14, 2025). We start the show with the Making Contact segment she produced in 2015, exploring the complex relationships between caregivers and care receivers: the vast majority of care recipients are exclusively receiving unpaid care from a family member, friend, or neighbor. The rest receive a combination of family care and paid assistance, or exclusively paid formal care. Whether you're a paid home care provider, or rely on personal assistance to meet your daily needs, or a family member caring for a loved one, the nature of the working relationship depends on mutual respect and dignity. The segment includes a conversation with Patty Berne, co-founder of Sins Invalid, who passed away in May 2025.
The show continues with an excerpt from Wong's powerful essay, [Diversifying Radio with Disabled Voices](https://focmedia.org/2016/04/diversifying-radio-with-disabled-voices/), which is a powerful call for better inclusion and representation of disabled voices in audio journalism. The episode closes with Alice's reading of Laura Hershey's 1991 poem You Get Proud by Practicing.
Featuring:
- Camille Christian, home care provider and SEIU member
- Brenda Jackson, home care provider and SEIU member
- Patty Berne, co-founder and director, Sins Invalid
- Jessica Lehman, executive director, San Francisco Senior and Disability Action
- Kenzi Robi, president, San Francisco IHSS (In Home Supportive Services) Public Authority Governing Body
- Rachel Stewart, queer disabled woman passionate about disability and employment issues
- Alana Theriault, disability benefits counselor in Berkeley, California
- Ingrid Tischer, director of development, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF)
Episode Credits:
- Host: Jessica Partnow and Laura Flynn
- Segment Producer: Alice Wong
- Executive Director: Jina Chung
- Engineer: Jeff Emtman
- Digital Media Marketing: Lissa Deonarain
Music:
- Dexter Britain: The Time To Run (Finale),
- Gillicuddy: Adventure, Darling,
- Steve Combs: March,
- Jason Shaw: Running Waters,
- Jared C. Balogh: BRICK BY BRICK DAY BY DAY,
- Jared C. Balogh: INCREMENTS TOWARDS SERENITY,
- Nheap: Crossings,
- Cherly KaCherly: The Hungry Garden,
- Trio Metrik: Vogelperspektive,
- Kevin MacLeod: Faster Does It
Learn More:
Diversifying Radio with Disabled Voices, by Alice Wong | You Get Proud by Practicing, by Laura Hershey | Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life, by Alice Wong | UCSF: UCSF Study Projects Need for 2.5M More Long-Term Care Workers by 2030 | SEIU: Longterm Care Workers | Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund | Disability Visibility Project | Hand in Hand: The Domestic Employers Network | National Disability Leadership Alliance | Senior and Disability Action | Sins Invalid | San Francisco In Home Supportive Services Public Authority | Family Caregiver Alliance
Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.