My dad likely had Asperger's. (Undiagnosed, but pretty much 100% he did). I have close friends with children who are very autistic. (Not completely non-verbel, but they say very few words and are still more likely to have a screeching meltdown than talk.)

My dad was highly successful; a leader in his industry and did a great job supporting us. His life was relatively easy (as easy as life can be in general) and he was a contributing member of society.

We love my friends kids to death and they do have many positive things going for them, but they will likely never be able to live on their own. Even if they do, they are in for a very hard life. They will likely always need to be supported by family and will likely never be contributing members of society.

To lump both those together is insane. It drives me crazy when people who are functional members of society run around laughing about how they are "autistic". I can't think of anything more disrespectful to those who can never have a "normal" life.

With that being said, I do recognize that medically there is a spectrum. I, as someone with ADHD am likely on that spectrum somewhere as well, from how the science is sounding these days. We need to make this spectrum obvious and respectful though. Why can't we classify a level or something? For example "Autistic level 1" for Asperger's, "Autistic level 2" for barely verbal, "Autistic level 3" for non-verbel... Something like that, so we can unite the cause, but still differentiate the effects and potential outcomes.