Post Date: Mar 31, 2026
By Cierra Duncan March 31, 2026
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.
Dr. Purvi Sevak, Senior Director of Mathematica’s Disability Practice, discusses her path from an undergraduate student studying health policy to her work at Mathematica, the evolution and importance of disability employment policy, and her research with the DEP RRTC examining how local infrastructure affects employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
Today, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened an investigation into the Houston Independent School District (the District) in Houston, Texas to determine whether the District violates Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act by not following these requirements, and are thereby discriminating against students with disabilities.
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.