Zandy Wong

Biography

Alexandra Wong is a senior at Johns Hopkins University, majoring in Public Health Studies. She is passionate about creating a world where accessibility is universal and having a disability is celebrated through her research and advocacy. As part of the Johns Hopkins Neuroscience Scholars program, she has created computational methods to determine the level of hearing loss in mice and contextualized hearing healthcare disparities in Baltimore in the late 1900s. She has also contributed to research at Hopkins surrounding noise-induced hearing loss, the inequitable digital public health response to COVID-19, and accessibility of U.S. hospital websites. When she’s not in the lab, she can be found sharing her story of growing up with hearing loss on the TEDx stage, with podcasts, and on industry panels to encourage acceptance of those with disabilities. In the community, she is the founder of the NextGen Accessibility Initiative where she partners with Gen Z organizations to make their digital content fully accessible for disabled youth. Her work to improve digital accessibility within the NextGen Accessibility Initiative has reached over 200,000 youth in 119 countries. Zandy also advised the U.S. Department of Labor and state policymakers on creating policies to help disabled youth transition into higher education and workplace environments as a member of the CAPE-Youth Working Group (Center for State Governments). She has been awarded the Heumann-Armstrong Award and named a Top 50 Global Finalist for the Varkey Foundation’s 2023 Global Student Prize in recognition of her disability advocacy and research. In her free time, she enjoys running, composing piano music, and scouting out the best pastries in Baltimore.