He graduated from Alva Senior High School in 1967 and began studying electrical engineering at Oklahoma State University.

[9] 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.

That panel's work led, in 1978, to creation of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), a unit of the US Department of Education.

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.

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 prior to passage.

Frieden's swearing in ceremony was conducted in the Oval Office by the President and by White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card.

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.

In 2016, Frieden was appointed by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to the board of METRO, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas.

[20] 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.