I have been thinking lately. I know, a terrifying idea. I should stop it, but I have been thinking nonetheless. It came to me last night while I was taking a shower, the best time to get ideas. One of the things that autistic people often have trouble with is understanding facial expressions, tones of voice, and body language when talking to people. And one of the things that people in general have is understanding a person's intent while reading emails, texting or instant messaging. The "voice" often used in these is often conversational but nuances like sarcasm, joy, boredom and things like that are impossible to tell. Hence people use things like emotecons.
For example:
I am very happy for you.
This is something that the meaning should be very obvious.
However it is not. The meaning can be can easily be changed with the addition of emotecons.
I am very happy for you. :D
I am very happy for you. -_-
I am very happy for you. /sarcasm
I am very happy for you. =P
Without these emotecons, however, non-autistic people can be just as blind to the meanings of the words as an autistic person is to speaking to an actual person.
Just a thought.