Glen Casto memorial celebration
Glen Casto was instrumental in founding both the Center for Persons with Disabilities and the Early Intervention Research Institute (EIRI). In honor of his memory, EIRI is collecting stories, photos, letters and experiences that will be compiled in a scrapbook to be presented to his family.
The deadline for submitting these materials is July 15, and they should be sent to Mary Ellen Heiner at Maryellen.heiner@usu.edu.
The scrapbook will be presented during the Glen Casto memorial celebration, set for August 8-9. A gathering for friends, family and colleagues will celebrate Glen's life on Friday, August 8, from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Iron Gate Grill in Providence, Utah. A light lunch will be provided. Those who wish to attend should RSVP to Mary Ellen either via email or by calling her at 435-797-0088 by July 15.
On Saturday, August 9, a memorial bike ride up beautiful Logan Canyon will celebrate a man who preferred meeting his colleagues outside to talking in a professional boardroom setting. The public is invited. For more information on the memorial celebration visit the Early Intervention Research Institute website (http://www.eiri.usu.edu).
Glen was as a professor of Psychology at Utah State University, and the Associate Director for the Center and the Co-Director of EIRI (the Research and Evaluation Division) from its inception until his retirement in 1994. He also directed or co-directed several state and regional research projects such as the Indian Children's Project, which was conducted on the Navajo Reservation in the four-corners area; the Team Education for Adolescent Mothers Project, which was conducted in the Ogden, UT, area; and the Agent Orange Family Assistance Program, a study in which he worked with Vietnam veterans in the Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming regions.
He served on the Board of Directors for Children's Aid International and as a senior design consultant for a long-term intercultural relations research and training program with the Center for Research and Education, traveling to countries such as Iceland, Italy, Iran, Greece, Spain, Puerto Rico, and the United Arab Emirates.
He passed away in August of 2007 in Bellingham, Washington.
For more information about Glen, visit: http://www.cpd.usu.edu/asset.php?id=640
UN Senior Economic Affairs Officer Kay Nagata speaks in the Edith Bowen auditorium.
UN official urges CPD to act on world stage
On the heels of a landmark human rights treaty, a United Nations official visited the Utah State University campus to show how the Center for Persons with Disabilities can get involved in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Kozue Kay Nagata explained the treaty's implications to interested people who gathered in the Edith Bowen school auditorium on June 23. A senior economic affairs officer at the United Nations, she was involved in drafting the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The UN convention guarantees people with disabilities equal rights within the countries that ratify it. So far 129 countries have signed onto the convention, signaling their interest in its policies. The 27 countries that have ratified the treaty have adjusted their domestic laws, bringing them in line with the convention's requirements. The convention sped through the ratification process in one of the fastest negotiations ever seen at the UN.
Though the United States has adopted anti-discrimination laws including the Americans with Disabilities Act, it has not signed or ratified the UN convention, remaining neutral on the issue. Even so, Dr. Nagata said, the Center for Persons with Disabilities can still contribute to the effort. "Don't wait until your government signs the convention," she urged. "There is still a lot you can do."
As governments outside the United States work to implement the treaty, they can benefit from the CPD's research into disability issues, data collection, information sharing and the development of assistive technologies. Many of the governments that have ratified the treaty do not have many policies in place in the field of disability. Their next challenge will be forming policies and acquiring the technical skills needed. Dr. Nagata encouraged the CPD to begin by working through countries that already have a relationship with Utah State University.
In addition, the convention can also serve as an international standard for the rights of people with disabilities, she said.
Dr. Nagata is an economist who works on disability, human rights and gender issues. She studied the social impact of the disastrous tsunami in Thailand and has researched the integration of vulnerable groups like people with disabilities, the poor and the elderly in the Middle East. She currently resides in New York.
For more information on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, visit: http://www.un.org/disabilities.
