This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), a United Nations treaty that established the framework for promoting, protecting, and ensuring the full and equal enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities.

As part of the celebrations of this landmark convention, Dr. Derrick Cogburn—Professor of Environment, Development and Health at SIS, Professor of Information Technology & Analytics at Kogod, and Executive Director of the Institute on Disability and Public Policy (IDPP)—is leading a Side Event at the UN’s 19th Conference of States Parties to the CRPD on June 9th at 10am titled “Accelerating Community Monitoring of Global Disability Rights and Civic Engagement: AI-Enabled Data Dashboards and Mobile Apps.” (Register to join remotely here.)

This side event, supported by Dr. Cogburn’s seed grant from the National Science Foundation through the Translating Research into Action Center (TRAC), marks the official launch and demonstration of the CRPD Disability Rights Data Dashboard that Dr. Cogburn and his team of IDPP research associates—including five AU students—developed  to evaluate the implementation progress of the CRPD across 170 Member States. The dashboard and mobile app integrate IDPP’s hybrid analytical strategy of combining Python-based text mining and natural language processing (NLP) with AI-driven generative analysis of CRPD reporting data. Dr. Cogburn’s presentation will also include the public re-launch of the updated CRPD iOS mobile application which integrates the dashboard. In addition, the event will showcase complementary AI-driven data approaches—including accessibility mapping, crowd-sourced recreation data, and socio-economic indicators—that together with the dashboard and mobile app provide communities with powerful, accessible resources for monitoring and evaluating progress toward CRPD implementation.

By placing these analytical capabilities directly in the hands of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) and civil society, the event—timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the CRPD—demonstrates how data-driven tools can enhance accessible civic engagement, strengthen disability leadership and advocacy, and support the transition from participation to meaningful representation in political and public life.

“Our side-event is directly aligned with the COSP-19 Sub-Theme 3: From Participation to Representation: Enhancing Accessible Civic Engagement, Leadership, and Advocacy in Political and Public Life,” said Dr. Cogburn. “Our CRPD Data Dashboard and integrated mobile app will put powerful analytical tools into the hands of community advocates, as well as governments and international organizations.”

The CRPD data dashboard and mobile app build on a decade of IDPP work, including the development of a hybrid methodology to evaluate the CRPD’s implementation progress which was documented in Dr. Cogburn’s 2025 Data & Policy journal article “Uncovering Policy Priorities for Disability Inclusion: NLP and LLM Approaches to Analyzing CRPD State Reports.” The methodology combines traditional text mining and NLP techniques with generative artificial intelligence tools, allowing the user to illustrate global, regional, and national progress on CRPD implementation, uncover gaps, identify priority areas for implementation, and develop actionable insights.

The event is organized by the IDPP, UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance at AU, the Inclusive Technology and Policy Strategic Research Initiative at AU, the Canada Research Chair in Childhood Disability at McGill University, the Research Consortium on Disability at Fordham University, and AXS Lab, Inc.

“By bringing together the partners in this exciting collaboration, we are laying the groundwork for the next phase of combined projects in data analytics to support the needs and goals of persons with disabilities worldwide,” said Dr. Cogburn.

Register to join the event (Tuesday, June 9th, 10:00 – 11:15am) virtually: https://american.zoom.us/meeting/register/9A1TUDuqSWu92S-PNsQdTg#/registration

Additionally, on Thursday morning from 10:00 – 11:30, Dr, Cogburn is reflecting on COSP-19 and the IDPP side-event in an interview with The Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy (TPRC) during a free virtual “poolside” chat live from the United Nations. Register to participate in this reflection: https://bit.ly/3Q3t5g.