My Understanding of What the Autism Spectrum Is

Reader, feel free to correct my ignorance, please do tell me how you feel about your diagnosis if you have one, since I imagine my old man is on the autism spectrum. Why else would the narc lie about his kid being ADD then? Autism is one manifestation of th autism spectrum, which is a range of how people are affected by autism. Aspergers used to be in the DSM but they took it out? Somebody with autism tell me why they did that? Also, ADD is either on the autism spectrum or not on the autism spectrum? Anybody can feel free to correct me with this definition. The thing is the autism spectrum is wide but there is still wide spread ignorance out there, even my own.