Alternative to Disability Pride? Imagining a Different Future for Community Building

Grounded in Critical Disability Studies, this inductive qualitative study examines the in/applicability of disability pride in Hong Kong, China, from disability epistemology. Current literature on autism is enclosed in traditional fields of medical health and applied social sciences in Hong Kong. Consequently, there is a taken-for-granted assumption that disability is less and in need of intervention. In order to counter the negative discourse in the knowledge production of autism, I interviewed 54 participants (including autistic adults, autistic youth with intellectual disabilities, parent advocates, social workers, and more) in the years 2022 and 2023. The in-depth interviews were triangulated with document analysis between 2017 and 2022. This study contributes to the existing literature in two significant ways. First, it enriches international understanding, as Disability Studies have long been criticized for being too white. Second, this is the first study that questions the possibility of cultivating disability pride in community organizing of autism communities from disability epistemology.