Kerry Gruson, a regular at Shake-A-Leg Miami, will also be presenting in a symposium at the festival.

Gruson, 61, a retired New York Times reporter partially paralyzed in 1974 when a Vietnam Veteran she was interviewing suffered a traumatic flashback and strangled her, can't move her legs. Her arms have a short range. Her head is permanently cocked to one side. Still, she holds several world sailing titles, including a few won in competitions against able-bodied sailors.

Her technological aid? A lightweight, custom-designed chair and pulley system that allow Gruson to slide with ease from one side of her boat to the other, giving her quick access to sails and rudder.

''Sailing is as much about thinking and strategy as it is the physical,'' she said. ``And that's why I win.''

Another presenter at the festival, Dr. Mark Nash, associate professor of neurological surgery, rehabilitation medicine and physical therapy at the University of Miami's Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, works to physically strengthen paralysis patients while cures are sought.

Last week, he worked in a small room at the center with Rodolfo Prinetto, who sat in front of the green screen and reached high with both hands, stretching up to grab some invisible object. He then leaned over to set the object down.

Check out the computer monitor facing Prinetto, and you see he has been placed on a virtual assembly line where he's removing boxes from an upper conveyor belt and placing them on a lower belt.

He later played a game of virtual volleyball against a robot on the green screen.

''There is no cure yet for paralysis, true,'' Prinetto says, breathing heavily after the round of volleyball. ``But I can tell you that most people in my situation aren't looking each day for a cure. They are looking for ways to be independent. You don't think of it, but these machines have done so much for my upper body strength and my overall circulation that I am almost completely independent. I can move my chair. I can drive. I can do so many things without help.''

If disability is a matter of not being able to commit certain acts, then Weihenmayer is arguably more able-bodied than most people with working eyes.

Among other things, he captained his high school wrestling team and is a world-class mountain climber who has scaled the legendary Seven Summits. He got married on the side of Mount Kilimanjaro.

''I know it sounds like a feel-good cliché,'' Weihenmayer says. ``But I don't feel disabled. I feel like I'm doing the best I can with what I have. And at the same time, like everyone else -- no matter their physical status -- I'm integrating into my life tools that help me be more proficient.

''So No Barriers is about all of it, the physical, the mental, the psychological,'' he says. ``The technology is important in the sense that it helps ensure that the name of our organization isn't just wishful thinking.''

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