Getting up and out of a wheelchair and being able to walk again is a huge accomplishment. The latest approach is to bypass brain and muscle power and use robotic legs.

Radi Kaiof is a paraplegic in England. However, he can stroll around while chatting about new technology that he uses to help him walk.

It's called an exoskeleton. The motors strapped to Radi's legs are doing the walking, and when he presses a button to re-program the exoskeleton, it goes into sitting mode and puts him in a chair.

He said his three-year-old daughter was impressed the first time he stood up before her using the new device.

"The first time she see me to stand she tells me, 'Father you're tall,'" he said.

Radi was restricted to a wheelchair for 20 years. ReWalk, as it's called, has given him a new freedom.

"It's like a bicycle," he said. "At first it's hard and after that is easy."

At the touch of a button, Radi can even climb stairs. That gives him almost total mobility and a new dignity.

It may cost about $155,000 Canadian, but for paraplegics being able to walk again is priceless.

ReWalk Legs' manufacturer is Agro Medical and they announced this week the legs will go on sale in January 2012 at a cost of about $100,000.  

Meanwhile in San Jose, CA, Stephanie Sablan is a paraplegic who said she was texting, driving and not wearing a seat belt when she was ejected and broke her back.

That was January 7 and she hadn't walked since, until she strapped on bionic legs called eLEGS.

"I definitely had to hold back the tears," she said. "I couldn't believe I was back standing since that is something that was taken away from me."

The 24-year-old is part of a study at Santa Clara Valley Medical's rehab center looking at the safety of eLEGS, developed by Berkeley Bionics.

"The computer on board controls the legs to take a natural step as the patient balances and moves forward," said Adam Zoss, senior engineer at Berkeley Bionics.

The eLEGS device weighs about 45 pounds, and can be adjusted to fit a patient's height.

If studies prove eLEGS are safe, the hope is one day paralyzed patients can use it on their own at home.

"Even just cooking, to be able to watch over the stove instead of looking at it at eye level. That would be one of the biggest rewards," said Sablan, who plans to attend college.

Thanks to her eLEGS she is now standing tall, and stepping into a more promising future.

The idea for eLEGS was born when Berkeley Bionics first developed a device that could take the load off soldiers carrying back packs in the field.