Meh, real simple. Whether or not autism is a disorder, that doesn't mean you dehumanize the people with whatever it is. Don't treat the person as a disease; treat the symptoms that negatively affect their lives. Medicine, of any kind, should be focused on that. To the extent that it doesn't, it isn't medicine and it isn't help. In any case, most people in general, do some amazingly foolish things....
I fail to see what "treating autism as a disease," in and of itself accomplishes. It's such a wide range of things, which a person may or may not exhibit at varying levels, that we might actually be describing several different things that we've just decided to clump into one label. People with "Autism" sometimes have trouble socializing. If this is an issue, then treat that. I've seen autistic children self stim with inappropriate behaviors, treat that. I've also seen repetitive, maladaptive behaviors, again treat that.... Unfortunately, instead of treating to make the person's life better, we often just stigmatize them; in common language, most people think "autistic" is the new word for "mentally slow." It isn't.
The thing is how it affects the person's life, high or low functioning. I find it a lot like the trans or gay thing really. There are some transsexuals, who truly need therapy, because how the hell do you deal with that.... I know I needed it (still do?). Having/being the thing itself sometimes causes problems for the person in their everyday life and those problems are partially due to the environment and people around said person. Sadly, we have a major stigma against ... really any kind of difference someone might have. Heaven forbid it's a mental issue.... That stigma, is quite worthless most of the time. Oftentimes, the "help" just hurts....
Fact of the matter is, most "normal people" are pretty nuts and this almost certainly includes me along with everyone else. I could write one hell of a book with the insanely foolish mistakes "normal people" have made and expect me to fix for nothing and quickly....
Summation: "People are people too," "treat to make life better," "stigma bad," "we don't really even know if "autism" is one thing or many different things that we're too lazy to properly identify as more than "high" or "low" functioning, "'normal people' aren't that great."