Disability Advocacy
Creating a world where accessibility is universal and having a disability is celebrated
Zandy Wong’s Current Projects
NextGen Accessibility Initiative
Founder
Mission
- Ensure that digital environments are accessible for all youth through educational workshops and one-on-one consulting with educational organizations.
What do we do?
- The NextGen Accessibility Initiative works one-on-one with Gen Z educational/advocacy/awareness organizations run by Gen Z to identify and fix digital accessibility gaps (ex. Adding closed captioning, alt text, accessible hashtags). We also host virtual workshops within the Hopkins community and help out various Hopkins offices with their accessibility needs as well.
Impact
- Create accessible educational content for over 200,000 students across 119 countries
- 10 workshops in the community
- Partnerships with 15 organizations globally
- Partners include: Engineering Tomorrow, International Youth Neuroscience Association
Council of State Governments & Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy
National Youth Advisor (Maryland/DC/Virginia Representative)
Mission
- Create equitable policies for youth with disabilities transitioning in and out of school and workplace environments.
Role
- As a youth advisor, I work directly with the Department of Labor and state policymakers to help advance employment and education policies through yearly conferences.
Johns Hopkins University Diversity Leadership Council
Student Representative
Mission
- Advises Hopkins President Ron Daniels on matters of diversity and inclusion.
- Encourages programs that are supporting diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity at the university and health system and urges progress in areas where the institutions need to improve.
Role
- I represent 6,000+ undergraduate students and serve on the Student Experience Sub-Committee of the Diversity Leadership Council. There, I advocate for a student experience that is safe and equitable for all.
Zandy Wong’s Past Projects
Representative Katie Porter’s Office
Legislative Intern (Placed by the AAPD Internship Program)
Mission
- Serving the constituents of CA-45 (Orange County, Irvine, etc.)
Role
- Assisting on health policy research
- Answering and responding to constituents’ meetings
- Providing stakeholder notes for meetings
- Attending briefings and hearings on behalf of the office
Asian-Americans with Disabilities Initiative
Core Research Team Member
Mission
- Provide the next generation of disabled Asian American leaders with accessible resources so that they can combat anti-Asian racism and ableism in their own communities.
Role
- As a research committee member, I assist with research duties for the open-source resource guide and for NIH-funded literature review of US policy concerning disabled Asian-American women.
Disability-Inclusive Sexual Health Network
State Youth Advisor
Mission
- Advance equitable sexual health education for youth with disabilities through partnerships with community organizations and the Virginia State legislature.
Role
- As a Virginia state youth advisor, I advise the Virginia State legislature in creating accessible sexual health education for youth with disabilities.
Coelho Law Fellowship Program
Coelho Law Fellow (Class of 2021-2022)
Mission
- Engage disabled undergraduates in learning more about disability policy.
Role
- : I am writing a policy analysis on over-the-counter hearing aids for the Coelho Center, soon to be published on their blog!
