I think it makes a lot of people uncomfortable, like they don't know how to act about it for some reason... my brother is in a wheelchair (also mentally disabled) so I have had to deal with the staring/avoiding/acting uncomfortable thing myself my whole life growing up. It contributed a lot to my social anxiety I think but that is another story. Anyways I know it is very different than your situation and not saying I completely understand how you feel, but I know how it goes having people act like that...

If you notice someone avoiding looking at you while passing you on the street or someone staring at you maybe say "hello!" and give them a big smile Kids especially seem to do the staring thing because they don't understand it at all... sometimes I like to start talking to them about it if them seem like they're really interested. One kid was like "how does he sleep in bed??" and further talking to him indicated he was under the impression my brother was like connected to his wheelchair and the kid was thinking of it like part of his body

There's one guy in my neighborhood who rolls through the streets in his electric wheel-chair and is a cool motherf*cker. If anyone is at all wondering how they should react to him being disabled or whatever he instantly disarms these thoughts by just starting a conversation and cracking jokes. Not saying you have to be extrovert of the year but once you engage them I think people quickly realize that it's not something they have to be act weird about.

I don't know if any of this helps but take care man... I am pretty reclusive and I can tell you from experience that it ****ing sucks and I wouldn't recommend it. Regardless of how much I can relate to the other stuff I can definitely tell you that from iron-clad, firsthand experience