Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Recent advancements in generative AI (GenAI) leveraging large language models (LLMs) have led to scholarship on how they (e.g., ChatGPT) can help neurodivergent students create customized workarounds and refocus energy.In response to calls for countering ableist narratives of lessening burdens and challenging normative norms that favor neurotypical individuals in prior research, we use interviews (n = 19) to center neurodivergent higher-education students' accounts related to the use, motivation, and vision for LLM-based GenAI tools in academia.While students found the tools helpful, their experiences revealed challenges with integration into tried-and-tested workflows, limited AI literacy support, experimentation, and flattening personality.Drawing on crip time, we illustrate how GenAI tools can reinforce the normative value of productivity, shifting the burden of access-making onto students themselves.We propose three design values, flexibility, adaptability, and self-authenticity, to reimagine GenAI as a partner rather than a tool prioritizing speed and self-sufficiency.
Institution: University of Michigan
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4415444817