A new study by the Institute on Disability & Public Policy (IDPP) Executive Director Dr. Derrick L. Cogburn and his research team comprised of scholars from American University, McGill University, and University of Virginia was published by Cambridge University Press in its Data & Policy journal. The study, "Uncovering policy priorities for disability inclusion: NLP and LLM approaches to analyzing CRPD state reports" by Derrick Cogburn, Theodore Ochieng, Keiko Shikako, Juliana Woods, and Mina Aydin, explores how advanced generative artificial intelligence tools—like Google AI Studio's NotebookLM and OpenAI's ChatGPT—in combination with traditional text mining and natural language processing (NLP) techniques can analyze 170 national progress reports submitted under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The research examined the texts through this combined methodology to identify how countries frame their disability inclusion priorities, discover regional differences, and evaluate the shift to a rights-based model of disability policy in global reporting.
The study shows the potential of generative AI tools and large language models to spotlight global policy trends and gaps, helping to drive more inclusive and accountable disability policymaking. This also builds on the team’s earlier presentation at the 2025 Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) and underscores IDPP’s role in pioneering innovative approaches to global disability rights implementation.
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