Alice Wong, a nationally recognized disability rights advocate and author who founded the Disability Visibility Project, has died at 51, CNN reported .

Her family announced her death Sunday, saying she died in a San Francisco hospital after complications from an infection, CNN added.

According to NPR , Wong was born in Indianapolis to immigrant parents from Hong Kong. She was diagnosed with spinal muscular dystrophy at birth and told she would not live past 18. She defied the odds, earning a master’s degree in medical sociology and working as a research associate at the University of California, San Francisco, while advocating for accessibility and inclusion.

According to the Muscular Dystrophy Association , spinal muscular dystrophy is an inherited disorder that disrupts the nerves

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