The Many Faces of UTHealth Houston: Lex Frieden

Photo by Scott Dalton

On a November night in 1967, Lex Frieden, MA, was a freshman in college riding back to campus with friends. What happened next would change his life forever.

“We had a head-on impact,” Frieden recalled. “Everybody jumped out of the cars, and I was still in the back seat and couldn’t move.” An X-ray later confirmed a broken neck. The injury left him without the use of his arms or legs.

The physical trauma was only the first barrier Frieden would face. When he later applied to continue his education at a newly built university campus he believed would be accessible, he was denied admission.

“The dean told me that I indicated I used a wheelchair for mobility and their policy was not to have students with disabilities on their campus,” he said. “Nobody really prepared me for a society that said just because you have a disability, you’re not admitted.”

That rejection became a defining moment — not one of defeat, but of direction. One that propelled him into national disability advocacy, contributing to what would become the Americans with Disability Act, and to advancing research focused on improving lives of people with disabilities at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston.

“Nothing about us without us”

Frieden soon encountered a very different response at another institution. Administrators at the University of Tulsa offered to relocate his classes to accessible buildings so he could attend.

“To me, that was miraculous,” he said of the decision. “It was a brilliant solution. It did not cost them anything to accommodate me.”

In that moment, Frieden began to understand the power of advocacy and creative problem-solving.

As he completed rehabilitation in Houston, he met mentors who expanded his vision beyond personal resilience. Among them was William Spencer, MD, who encouraged him to learn everything he could about disability and the barriers people faced in society.

That encouragement led to national organizing efforts in the 1970s, when Frieden and disability leaders from across the country united to push for enforcement of federal civil rights protections.

“What we learned by meeting was that we had all shared a defining moment,” Frieden said. “Each one had at least one episode where they had been told they couldn’t do something that they could do, strictly on the basis of their disability.”

From that movement emerged a philosophy that reshaped public policy: “Nothing about us without us.” The slogan underscored that people with disabilities must be central participants in all decisions affecting their lives. 

For Frieden, that principle took shape through the concept of independent living.

“We defined independent living as making decisions that affect your own life,” he explained. “It doesn’t matter who ties your shoes as long as they tie it when you want your shoes on. And it doesn’t matter who pulls your shirt out of the closet as long as you’re the one who is deciding what color shirt you want to wear.”

Drafting a landmark law

In the 1980s, Frieden was appointed to lead the National Council on Disability, where he helped draft the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“When the ADA was in effect, things changed radically,” he said. “One day buses in cities were not accessible, and the next day almost every transit agency in the country was buying buses that I and other people with disabilities could use.”

Curb cuts appeared. Public buildings had ramps installed. Access expanded at a pace few had imagined possible. But Frieden also recognized that laws alone cannot erase bias.

“What we learned was that discrimination goes beyond the physical barriers,” he said. “Sometimes you have to change attitudes in order to break through those barriers to employment and inclusion.”

A scholar, mentor, and innovator at UTHealth Houston

Frieden’s advocacy eventually merged with academia. After more than 30 years at Baylor College of Medicine, he joined UTHealth Houston in 2007 to help build what is now McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics.

“I was attracted to the vision,” he said of the interdisciplinary, technology-forward school. Since then, Frieden’s taught students from across the globe, mentoring future physicians, nurses, public health leaders, and informatics specialists.

His research now examines the long-term impact of the ADA, explores digital accessibility, and harnesses artificial intelligence to improve independence for people with disabilities. “I wake up every morning with an opportunity to do something meaningful,” he said, whether teaching or engaging in cutting-edge research.”

Frieden is also director of the Southwest ADA Center and founder of the Independent Living Research Utilization program at TIRR Memorial Hermann.

His career and advocacy work have earned him numerous awards and accolades, including two Presidential Citations, and honorary doctorates from the National University of Ireland and Princeton University.

The lesson he hopes endures

While his personal archives have found a home in the National Archives at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum at Texas A&M University, preserving decades of advocacy, Frieden remains focused on empowerment.

“I want people to feel as though the barriers they encounter don’t have to stop them from living a productive and happy life,” he said.

“If you find allies, if you get support, if you make decisions that affect your own life, then you can be productive, you can have a fulfilling life.”