I've been reading your questions lately. My son is a 19 yr old freshman in college with high functioning autism. He is also an only child. My son was diagnosed within the last two years. At his age, I find myself asking the same questions and having the same worries that you mention. I wonder if he will be able to support himself in the world. Will people be understanding, forgiving even? Will he be able to keep a job? What will happen to him when we are gone? I'm not much help but know you are not alone.

The reality is that the "programs" for adults with ASD are the parents for most of them. Since most live at home it's pretty much an invisible problem to the general public. The National Institute of Health (NIH) has funding categories for research and autism isn't in the top 100 the last time I checked. I doubt we'll see any type of "cure" for various reasons: mental issues still have a stigma and get less funding, tough to fix the brain as it's the most complex organ, autism is unique in that some don't want be "cured" and still ASD as an asset.

Some sobering facts:

"There will be 500,000 adults on the autism spectrum aging into adulthood over the next 10 years. Yet a whopping 85% of college grads affected by autism are unemployed, compared to the national unemployment rate of 4.5%."

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/most-college-...(Phone number can only be seen by the question and answer creators)

"Nearly half of adults with autism live with a family member and about one in five is unemployed, according to a new analysis1. Only 5 percent have ever been married."

"For instance, 44 percent had a legal guardian. Only 9 percent lived in a home they had purchased themselves or in their own apartment; the same proportion lived in an institution. And 35 percent lived in a group home, supported apartment or other supervised living situation. The remaining 47 percent lived with family. The findings appeared 20 December 2017 in Autism Research."

https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/jobs-relation...

https://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/news/2015042...

My ASD daughter is 11 years-old and is in the middle or lower end of the spectrum. At a school IEP meeting, I asked them if our daughter could take a practice state assessment test just to see if she could graduate with a diploma. They said they don't do practice tests I guess I have to find one online? I think she may be better off if she was married to higher functioning ASD guy or non-ASD guy. We wouldn't force into getting married but I think it's better than a group home.

I was really lucky to be able to talk and do several miniate things but was not good at somethings there again wife is a big help.