USU’S CPD is now the Institute for Disability Research, Policy and Practice

Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services

LOGAN – As of July 1, Utah State University’s Center for Persons With Disabilities will be known as the Institute for Disability Research, Policy and Practice.

Matthew Wappett, institute executive director, said the name, Center for Persons With Disabilities, became ambiguous.

“It doesn’t tell you who we are and what we do. So changing to the Institute for Disability Research, Policy and Practice we feel like really highlights our role and function,” said Wappett. “We would get multiple calls and people thinking we were a service provider or that we were anyone of a number of things that didn’t really fit.

“So our hope is that the new name is also going to clarify what our function is within the state and the community.”

Wappett said it is not well known that the institute is a federally designated UCEDD Center, which stands for University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities.

“Every state in the U.S. and every territory has a UCEDD program that is focused on providing research, service and training related to the needs of people with disabilities and their families,” Wappett added. “We’re really proud to be the UCEDD for Utah. Our new name really highlights that role and function and really the mission that we have here in the state to make our communities more inclusive and more capable of meeting the needs of people with disabilities.”

The institute is housed within the Emma Eccles College of Education and Human Services and since the CPD was created in 1972 has focused on improving the social support systems that serve people with disabilities and their families.

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