From January 7 to 10, 2025, Institute on Disability and Public Policy (IDPP) Executive Director Dr. Derrick L. Cogburn and his team of research associates participated in the 58th annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). The team showcased innovative approaches to disability inclusion through the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and text analytics.

Dr. Derrick Cogburn, joined by research associates and assistants from IDPP and the American University Internet Governance Lab, facilitated a tutorial titled “Advanced Text Analytics with NLP and Generative AI.” During the tutorial, Dr. Derrick Cogburn, Haiman Wong, Theodore Ochieng, Mina Aydin, and Juliana Woods offered participants a detailed walkthrough on how to use tools like NLP, generative AI, and predictive modeling, applied to datasets such as the NIST AI Risk Management Framework. The session also highlighted the increasingly practical use of AI in policy analysis.

Additionally, members of the IDPP team presented the paper, “Understanding National, Regional, and Global Priorities for the Social Justice and Economic Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities: Analyzing CRPD State Reports Using Text Mining, NLP, and LLMs.” This paper analyzed 170 State Reports from the UN CRPD using the tools introduced in the tutorial. This research paper not only highlighted global progress in disability policy implementation, but also demonstrated the scalability of its text mining and NLP methodologies for monitoring international treaties.

Finally, the “Culture, Identity, and Inclusion” and “AI Safety, Cybersecurity, and Inclusion through Advanced Text Analytics” HICSS research paper minitracks held sessions to present their Best Paper Award nominations and discuss the future goals of each minitrack.

Chairs of the “Culture, Identity, and Inclusion” minitrack include Dr. Derrick Cogburn, IGL Co-Director Dr. Nanette Levinson, and IDPP Deputy Director Dr. Filippo Trevisan. A paper titled“Towards Inclusive Digital Transactions: Disability and The Case of Singapore’s Singpass App” by Kuansong Victor Zhuang, Bella Choo, Goggin Gerard, Chei Sian Lee, Felix Tan, and Roxanne Llamzon is this minitrack’s nominee for the Best Paper Award.

The “AI Safety, Cybersecurity, and Inclusion through Advanced Text Analytics” minitrack chairs are Dr. Derrick Cogburn, Haiman Wong, and Theodore Ochieng. This minitrack nominated “Adversarial Natural Language Processing: Overview, Challenges and Future Directions” by Laxmi Shaw, Mohammed Wasim Ansari, and Tahir Ekin for the Best Paper Award.

View pictures below to see the team at the prestigious HICSS conference.