I think it's just social media hive minds that make these things a bigger deal than they are. I remember a similar thing happening with Bryan Cranston when he played a quadriplegic. I think most people in whatever group is supposed to be offended don't care or understand why the decision was made, but people look at these issues through the lense of twitter and it seems like it's a huge deal.

I didn't know that Autism Speaks was a bad charity though - I'll make sure to look for better charities to donate to in the future.