SANDWICH -- Seated in a motorized wheelchair, Trevor Jung of Falmouth watched as his mother was strapped into a harness and hoisted 45 feet into the air.

As she leaped from the platform and flew along the 100-yard zip line, Jung snapped a picture, capturing a moment that would not have been so remarkable a decade ago.

"Before, she was right with us. Anything you could think of, she was on top of it," Jung said as he returned the wheelchair to his mother, Kristen.

But when Kristen Jung's Ehlers-Danlos syndrome — a connective-tissue disorder — forced her to rely on a wheelchair eight years ago, Trevor Jung's memories of playing baseball and basketball with his mother grew increasingly distant.

"It's cool that my mom is having fun instead of being left out," he said.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act yesterday, the Cape Organization for Rights of the Disabled, or CORD, left out none of the more than 100 people who gathered for activities ranging from kayaking to archery. On wheelchairs designed specifically for sand and sea, many event participants took to the beach and listened to speakers discuss the ADA over a lunch of hot dogs and hamburgers.

"There's still a lot of programs and activities that are closed from people with disabilities," said Coreen Brinckerhoff, the executive director of CORD. "We want to show that these programs are easily accessible."

She added that CORD, an organization devoted to advancing the "independence, productivity, and integration" of the Cape's disabled community, is focused on increasing access to state parks.

CORD has advocated for the disabled since 1984, but many at yesterday's event said the state of affairs for the Cape's disabled community is less than ideal.

"We've come a long way," said Kristen Jung, an individual living advocate for CORD and an organizer of yesterday's celebration. "But we still have a ways to go."

Jack Sherman of Sandwich said the picnic offered his daughter the opportunity to meet with friends she made during her day habilitation programs at the May Institute in Hyannis. Social opportunities are rare, he said, because many of his daughter's friends live in group homes and require help with transportation.

"It's for her to come out and be here with other young adults," Sherman said of his daughter, who communicates primarily through sign language. "Otherwise, it's very hard to do."

Like Sherman's daughter, Kristen Jung has found her opportunities to spend time with family and friends limited by her disability. Without the ability to attend many family sporting events and visit the beach, Kristen Jung said there have been many days when she hasn't been able to keep up with her three teenage children.

But yesterday wasn't one of them.

"That was the first time I've done that," Jung said on her return from the zip line course to the campground.

"It was very freeing."

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