Disabilities law opens doors
by Jennifer Maloney
Newsday, 08/27/2009

Kunken is a deputy bureau chief for Nassau County's court trial bureau. He's a husband, and father of triplets. He's also a quadriplegic.
And he says he owes a lot to Sen. Edward Kennedy.
In 1971, six months after Kunken was paralyzed by a spinal cord injury suffered while playing on Cornell University's lightweight football team, he spoke before Kennedy's health subcommittee at Hofstra.
The Levittown native told the senator he could not find health insurance coverage for, the long‑term care he needed.
After completing his undergraduate engineering degree and then earning a law degree from Hofstra, he got a job with the district attorney's office. But the Swinging front doors of the courtrooms were too narrow for his wheelchair. /full article/