Jacoby wrote:
NTs tend to avoid the disabled and just people different than them in general
I think Jacoby hit the nail on the head.
Most neurotypicals see autism as a disability, whether they admit it or not, and they see disability as innately weird and kind of gross. One autistic person is fine as a friend, but a group of them, where the neurotypical is the minority, would scare the h*ll out of 90% of NT people.
I am VERY comfortable around autistic people, probably more so than other neurotypicals. I would probably not have come to an autism group outing (prior to my career change into critical autism studies) because I would have felt I was intruding. That no one would want me there. I would have felt like the oppressor in a group that would otherwise be relaxed.