Alice Wong, a disability rights activist and author whose independence and writing inspired others, has died. She was 51.

Wong died on Friday because of an infection at a hospital in San Francisco, said Sandy Ho, a close friend who has been in touch with Wong’s family.

Ho called her friend a “luminary of the disability justice movement” who wanted to see a world where people with disabilities, especially those from marginalised demographics who were people of colour, LGBTQ and immigrants, could live freely and have full autonomy over their lives and decisions.

The daughter of Hong Kong immigrants, Wong was born with muscular dystrophy. She used a powered wheelchair and an assistive breathing device.

On social media Ho shared a statement Wong wrote before her death in which she said she never imagined her trajectory would turn out as it did, to writing, activism and more.

“It was thanks to friendships and some great teachers who believed in me that I was able to fight my way out of miserable situations into a place where I finally felt comfortable in my skin. We need more stories about us and our culture,” Wong wrote.