Do you know offhand of any famous personalities in history who were thought to be autistic?
Rumor has it that Steven Spielberg has Asperger's Syndrom, a form of autism. Also, I believe Einstein and Alexander Graham Bell are thought to have had Asperber's. People with Asperger's often have an ability (or disability depending on how you look at it) to hyper focus on things that interest them. They can become great success stories if they can focus in the right area for them.
My 7 year old grandson made a hole-in-one at our local country club last summer after only playing 2 or 3 times. He definitely has the ability to focus in on things, so much so that at first we thought he had a hearing problem. He sees in a very 3 dimensional way. If he can deal with the problems and focus in the right way, we think he will be an inventor or engineer of some kind.
Joan of Arc may had some serious issues...