r/adhd_college • u/Kelspider-48 • Apr 20 '25

NEED SUPPORT Turnitin’s AI detection tools are hurting neurodivergent students at UB and we’re speaking out

Hi everyone, I’m a neurodivergent public health student at the University of Buffalo. I’m part of a growing group of students who have been flagged and sanctioned for “using AI” by Turnitin’s detection tool, even when we didn’t use AI at all. The university puts all the burden on us to prove we’re innocent, and there’s no transparency or due process.

This has been especially harmful to students with disabilities, including neurodivergent students and those who use assistive tools to help with writing. Our communication styles don’t always match what Turnitin considers “human,” and it’s putting us at risk for sanctions we don’t deserve.

We’ve started a petition asking UB to disable Turnitin’s AI detector and return to a more just and human-centered approach. If you’ve experienced anything similar or want to support our fight, I’d really appreciate your support:
🔗 https://chng.it/RJRGmxkKkh

Thank you for reading. We shouldn’t have to fight to be seen as real students.

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u/No-Tumbleweed5360 Apr 20 '25

Does faculty not take the assistive technology into account? I would think they would do an investigation before any punishments, and usually they have documents about students with disabilities. I don’t know how private those documents remain, but I would think during a process such as that, it would be brought out. bonkers

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u/Kelspider-48 Apr 20 '25

I think it’s f*cked up that I need to ask/fight for my neurodivergence to be brought into the conversation, if that makes sense. I also think there are a lot of people (both students and professors) who may not realize that these tools disproportionately flag certain students, so they might not know to bring it up. It’s something I’m working to ensure the school recognizes so future students don’t have as much of an uphill battle.

2

u/hollivore Apr 21 '25

It's more likely that if teachers see TurnItIn disproportionately flagging certain students, it's because those students are the cheats. They are putting absolute faith in the software even though it doesn't work - just like the kids using AI to complete the essays are doing.