astronomy

Lex Frieden

Lex Frieden is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lex Frieden rather than just read about it. In short: Lex Frieden (born March 5, 1949) is an American educator, researcher, disability policy expert and disability rights activist. Frieden has been called "a chief architect of the Americans with Disabilities Act." He is also regarded as a founder and leader of the independent living movement by people with disabilities in the U.S.

Key takeaways

Lex Frieden belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lex Frieden to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lex Frieden from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Lex Frieden (born March 5, 1949) is an American educator, researcher, disability policy expert and disability rights activist. Frieden has been called "a chief architect of the Americans with Disabilities Act." He is also regarded as a founder and leader of the independent living movement by people with disabilities in the U.S.

Biography Lex Frieden was born in Alva, Oklahoma, a rural community in northwestern Oklahoma. He graduated from Alva Senior High School in 1967 and began studying electrical engineering at Oklahoma State University. It was as a freshman that he sustained a spinal cord injury in an automobile accident. As part of his rehabilitation from that injury, he went to TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston, where he met Dr. William A. Spencer, the rehabilitation medicine visionary. Dr. Spencer became Lex's mentor.

Public service Frieden's service in the 1970s included membership on a Congressional task force on science, technology and disability empaneled by Olin E. Teague (1910–1981), U.S. Congressman from Texas. The panel's mission was to study what was and was not being done in disability-related research across the entire swath of the U.S. Government. That panel's work led, in 1978, to the creation of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), a unit of the US Department of Education. Frieden was one of the major figures behind the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. As Executive Director of the National Council on Disability (NCD) in the mid-1980s, reporting to presidentially appointed Council members notably including Vice Chairman Justin Dart Jr., Frieden oversaw the work of Robert Burgdorf in writing the first drafts of what was to become the ADA. The Council issued two major reports, Toward Independence and On the Threshold of Independence, to further the effort along. President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA into law on July 26, 1990. Other significant legislation inspired by the council while Frieden was director included the Air Carrier Access Act of 1986 (ACAA) and legislation to make national parks and recreation areas accessible to people with disabilities. After leaving NCD in 1988, Frieden was appointed by Congressman Major R. Owens, Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Select Education, to be coordinator of the newly formed, Congressional Task Force on the Rights and Empowerment of Americans with Disabilities. The role of the task force was to gather information on the extent and nature of disability discrimination in America. Justin Dart Jr. was named chairman of the group, and working together as they had for the past five years at NCD, they produced several reports and papers which congressional committees used in the process of considering and refining the ADA before passage. President George W. Bush appointed Frieden Chairman of the NCD and the Senate confirmed his appointment on July 26, 2002, the anniversary of the signing of the ADA. Frieden's swearing-in ceremony was conducted in the Oval Office by the President and by White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. Under Frieden's leadership, the Council produced a report, Righting the ADA, that made recommendations leading to the enactment of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, and they proposed a UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. Other Council priorities during Frieden's tenure as NCD chair centered on livable communities, adaptive technology and community-based services and supports for long-term care. His personal experience assisting with disaster response and recovery after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita motivated Council recommendations that resulted in the passage of legislation to improve emergency preparedness and response for people with disabilities in disasters.

Academic appointments Frieden is Professor of Health Informatics and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He is also Professor (Adjunct) of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine. Frieden directs the Independent Living Research Utilization (ILRU) program at TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston (The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research). In 2010, the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor for the University of Texas System appointed him Chancellor's Health Fellow on Disability.

Education Frieden is an Alumnus of the University of Tulsa. He was named a Distinguished Alumnus of the University in 1979, and in 2004, the Lex Frieden Presidential Scholarship was established by the University in his honor. He is also a graduate of the University of Houston. In 2004, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in law (LL.D.) by the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Recognition In 1983, Frieden was recognized as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans. He was the 1998 winner of the Henry B. Betts Award for outstanding achievement in disability rights. In 2011, the Texas Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities named its annual employment awards program after Frieden for his advocacy work regarding the employment of people with disabilities around the world. He also won the 2013 Henry Viscardi Achievement Awards. Frieden was awarded the prestigious Fries Prize for Human Improvement by the CDC Foundation in 2017.

Community service Frieden is a member and former chairperson of the Board of the United Spinal Association. He serves on the board of the Sam Houston Area Council Boy Scouts of America. In 2016, Frieden was appointed by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to the board of METRO, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas.

Personal papers and historical archives Frieden's extensive collection of ADA artifacts and documents is held by the US National Archives and Records Administration at the George Bush Presidential Library at College Station, Texas. The collection chronicles the disability and independent living movements by people with disabilities during the last half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.

See also List of disability rights activists

References

External links Lex Frieden Homepage Bio details at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Bio details at Baylor College of Medicine Independent Living Research Utilization National Council on Disability

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lex Frieden

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lex Frieden claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lex Frieden before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lex Frieden ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lex Frieden

In research: Lex Frieden appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lex Frieden in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lex Frieden is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1949 births, Activists from Oklahoma, American disability rights activists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lex Frieden outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lex Frieden in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lex Frieden means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lex Frieden out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lex Frieden in simple terms?

Why does Lex Frieden matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lex Frieden?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lex Frieden.