As a parent of a young man with autism, I can not tell you how many times well meaning adults made rude comments when our son was having a melt down in a public place. I think today it may be a bit easier as the word Autism is more well known. We adopted our son when he was four and when he was small it was a bit easier to get him out of the store quickly before things went flying. Now that he is 5'11 and 165 it is a bit of a challenge. We have had run ins with nurses who have written down our license plate and turned us into child protective services, police officers, etc. I am a firm believer my son has the same rights as anyone but with so many bad experiences we had become a bit gun shy at taking Chris out. We learned to scope out places before taking Chris. We would talk to the store managers and restaurant  workers about our son and when we would be bringing Chris.  We became more at ease and with us being more at ease  so was Chris. He loves to go to the big hardware stores and using this idea he has made some great friends. Our kids and  adults have a right to be out in public they and others just may need a little support along the way.