I think it is very difficult to involve the public about any condition unless they are personally involved.
As to us not knowing enough about diabetes in general, there have been divisions in the diabetes community where people do not want their diabetes to be understood as another type and have called for name changing to differentiate between types. There is a stigma attached to Type2 but if the public are treating Type1s in the same manner then it is the media that needs to change.
http://www.diabetesmine.com/2013/04/the-kerfuffle-over-new-names-for-type-1-and-type-2-diabetes.html
I think this man had the right idea about the diabetes community when he put this petition up for signing when you read through his goals. (One petition to help us all).
http://strangelydiabetic.com/2013/04/17/and-one-petition-to-help-them-all/
I know a little about Type 1 but would never advise on this condition. I would be unable to answer a post from a Type1 who is asking about insulin but I would be prepared to offer them support and would bump their post up so that someone would help them out. I am not going to understand insulin use any time in the future much like an insulin user would have difficulty advising me about my diet other than in general terms but we could help each other by understanding that our conditions are different but equally important. to us.
The public are on the whole not interested in any condition unless it affects them personally so should we be more involved in learning about other conditions too? How many of you prior to diagnosis, knew anything about diabetes? This does not apply to people diagnosed when they were children.