I agree with Laurent Mottron that autism should be described as a variant within the human species (Nature 479, 33; 2011). But it is worth pointing out that neurotypical modes of social conduct prevail only because the neurotypical population far outnumbers the autistic one.

I have friends in the high-IQ society Mensa who are also autistic: we have our own set of non-verbal communications, our own set of social rules. When we predominate in a group, we communicate in the autistic way, and (neurotypical) people who cannot communicate in this way are unable to join in. In this setting, Mottron's 'normocentrism' would put our way of communicating as the norm, and class those who are left out as socially inept.