*old man voice* back in my day - and this was before your parents were born - most autistic people couldn't answer such a question if you asked. Many couldn't speak, some did but only to a limited degree (as he wanted two words at a time, like "bathroom" or "water"), and the very very very few high-functioning ones weren't exactly aware of what autism was. Heck, you look right before my gen, and autistic people were routinely locked away in mental institutions.
This, of course, was before autism became some sort of Facebook questionnaire-and-you're-in-the-club social media/street cred fad. Basically autism was a form of something I can't state or I'll get a timer for it. Something having to do with severe cognitive limitations.
So yes, anything that can get somebody out of a life of being locked away in such horrible conditions was something that was sought.
Back in my day.
Willowbrook. Geraldo Rivera. Google.
