Why a Hong Kong mother whose son has autism started Optism, a resource-rich platform for parents of children with ASD
- Carmen Li started doing research after learning her then three-year-old had autism; when he was 11, he suggested sharing the knowledge
- Her new portal, Optism, has autism-related resources and articles to inform parents, and an AI chatbot to answer common questions
When Carmen Li was told that her three-year-old son, Vincent Yee, had autism, she cried for a week.
“The first question was, ‘Why me, why us?’” she says. “As a mother, it felt like at that particular moment, it all lay on me, as if it was my fault.”
Overwhelmed, Li wasn’t sure what to do next. She spent the next few months scouring resources related to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) – a group of neurological and developmental disorders that affect how people interact with others, communicate, learn and behave.
She also researched therapy and appropriate schools for Vincent, all the time doubting whether her efforts would yield positive results.
“There was so much stress that I didn’t even know if there would be light [at the end of] the tunnel,” she recalls. “Now, there’s more awareness about what autism is. But back then it was very scary for a young mother.”
Mother and son have come a long way since then – Vincent, now 13 years old, attends mainstream school and is a track athlete.