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Having the issue blow up in the media would probably be the most effective thing in getting the rules changed around this. Politicians are otherwise slow to act and hide behind statements like 'following the best medical advice' rather than using common sense.
The generally high risk aversion of the public service is one of the root causes behind this. The above problem is just a symptom of banal bureaucracy where the chain of public servants presented with this issue decided to take the safe 'just following orders' route of following standards without any risky personal interpretation up to the point of injustice.
I agree that there are people with autism who shouldn't be driving, but the lack of nuance in the legislation doesn't differentiate between someone mildly on the spectrum with a few social quirks and someone who is completely non-verbal. From the public servant's point of view, its best to classify them the same just to be sure.
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