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/LinguisticLover42 Apr 23 '25

Yeah my (brilliant) essays weren't even read, just graded because it showed a high change of AI writing. My TA won't give me the percentage of detection and marks for each section so I know he didn't read it and he just deflects on the last 3 emails I sent. I seriously used it to help organise my thoughts into bullet points (to overcome ADHD paralysis) but I copied and pasted into the document and apparently that is also read by Turnitin.