genAI and neurodiversity
January 24, 2025•498 words
When I give talks about the reasons not to use genAI in academic research contexts, I usually get at least one person in the audience claiming that I am ignoring the huge benefits of genAI for neurodiverse researchers, that it removes so many of the barriers they face especially around writing. I usually respond with some version of this argument. But there are some aspects of that which could do with more elaboration.
There are three reasons I do not discuss - which is different from ignoring - the positive use case for neurodiversity.
The first is tactical: what may be a necessary tool for someone in a very specific context and used in a very specific manner can easily get misrepresented as 'a tool that does X' and thus something it is fine for anyone who wants to do X to use in the name of 'efficiency' or 'productivity' or whatever neoliberal ideology they feel under pressure to conform to. Not only will that result in excessive and inappropriate use of genAI, but also it will re-tilt the playing field in favour of the neurotypical. There is more than one reason the paralympics is a separate event.
Secondly, I absolutely agree that there are specific uses of genAI to help deal with challenges we have created for the neurodiverse which should not be prohibited. But we should not think that 'solves' the problem faced by the neurodiverse and we must take care to not let it mask, and thus perpetuate, the social distortions which created the problem in the first place. So it is really important that we operate at two levels: sympathy and support but also anger at the unnecessary structural injustice.
The first step towards a more hospitable academic world for the neurodiverse is to celebrate neurodiverse writing in academic contexts. For example, we could begin by ensuring that neurodiverse researchers working on topics to do with neurodiversity should not be pressured into 'improving' or 'correcting' their writing into a style which is designed to make life easier for neurotypical readers.
Finally, we have to be very careful, even when offering this as a support tool for individuals, to resist institutional tendencies to find a single 'support solution' for neurodiversity. A good example of this tendency is offering extra time in exams. That is offered as if it deals with all forms of SpLD equally well. But some people don't need extra time, they need the same time spread out in chunks over a day. But the Department for Education and the HE sector will not countenance such forms of examination because they are obsessed with hindering cheats rather than enabling those whose lives are blighted by an unfair system.1
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The obsession in modern societies with cheats - of any sort - creates this weird inversion where we care more about the alleged unfairness to the privileged of some having 'undeserved' privilege than we do about the much greater unfairness wrought upon the underprivileged. ↩