The AU Institute on Disability and Public Policy (IDPP) is co-sponsoring the Side Event "Data, Disability and Development: Innovative Approaches to Monitoring and Evaluating CRPD Implementation and Disability-Inclusive Development using Big Data Analytics and Text Mining" at the 11th Conference of States Parties (COSP-11) to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) at United Nations headquarters in New York on June 13, 2018 from 1:15pm-2:30pm in Room S-2729 in the UN Secretariat Building.

American University (AU) and Special Olympics have announced a new collaboration that will include research and educational initiatives focused on persons with intellectual disabilities, and that will provide substantial outreach opportunities for students and faculty. AU will host a signing ceremony to commemorate its partnership with Special Olympics and to inaugurate the new initiative on Tuesday, March 6, 2018 from 1:00-2:00 p.m. at Palmer Kettler Lounge in the AU Sports Center. AU President Burwell, Special Olympics Chairman Shriver and Special Olympics D.C. athlete Novie Craven will commemorate the new agreement between the two institutions.

IDPP will present for the first time at the 2017 Disability Summit hosted by the Information Policy and Access Center at University of Maryland College Park. The presentation entitled "Using ICTs to Enhance the Effective Participation of Persons with Disabilities in Global Governance" will take place on Friday, April 21 from 10:10am-11:00am US Eastern Time in Colony Ballroom with an accessible virtual participation option. IDPP Deputy Director Dr. Filippo Trevisan will subsequently present his paper on disability storytelling and political protests during this conference session. In addition, IDPP will present a poster on its recently launched and now publicly available mobile app "CRPD" during the conference.

IDPP is excited to announce that our latest book project entitled Making Disability Rights Real in Southeast Asia: Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in ASEAN was published on 24 March 2017. A lecture and book launch hosted by the Institute for Human Rights at the University of Alabama-Birmingham will take place on Thursday, 30 March at Heritage Hall 104 at 6:00pm US Eastern Time with a virtual participation option.