She is an international activist and advocate for people with disabilities. For the past 10 years, since I started working with my service dog, I have fought for the rights of service dog handlers who have been wrongfully rejected (the organization’s illegal rejection to grant access to the joint team).
Common to all denials of access is a lack of education. Unfortunately, many businesses don’t do enough to educate their employees about disability rights and hearing training; and as a result, they suffer from very expensive courses for their supervisors. An employee’s ignorance of access rights does not excuse the denial of those rights, and does not prevent the violator from receiving severe punishment.
Access denial is a serious, widespread problem throughout the service dog community, and it’s no surprise that those working with invisible disabilities have many issues with denial. However, just because you can’t see someone’s disability, doesn’t mean they don’t struggle with it; and all the problems it presents. Persons with invisible disabilities cannot be denied the same rights as persons with visible disabilities; training and hearing training are essential to prevent this type of disability discrimination.
For 10 years I advocated for employee rights, mediated court cases, and educated businesses about disability and their rights and responsibilities to their disabled customers. I have worked hard to protect the rights of service dog owners everywhere, and to promote the incredible benefits that service dogs provide to their colleagues with disabilities in order to help foster compassion and acceptance of these dogs these are wonderful. My work has opened many doors previously closed to Service Dog vs Emotional Support Dog teams, and I am fully committed to opening many more.
Recently, I have found new and unexpected clients-business owners who believe that their establishment has been visited (and often, damaged by) “rogue” service dogs.
“Impostor” or “fake” service dogs are a growing problem across America. This is the canine version of parking illegally in a disabled parking lot. Many people gave up any kind of decency and got vests and attached patches to illegally enter public places with their pets.
As unbelievable as it sounds, some criminals believe their dog should be allowed to go everywhere and can see no harm in passing one dog, while others know it is illegal, but act that anyway because they have no idea whatsoever. that’s bad; and some believe they are actually justified because they have emotional instability and having their dog to cheer them up alleviates their symptoms. Many of the latter have documentation written by their doctors attesting to the fact that their dog helps alleviate symptoms of emotional distress; and therefore, they feel fully justified in having their dog in a public place, calling it a service dog.
Whatever the reason, the simple fact of the matter is this: surrendering any dog that is not properly trained according to the Americans with Disabilities Act, state and local laws is not in law (state crimes) and carries state sanctions .
As for the emotionally supportive dog, these dogs (while serving a great and good purpose); they are not service dogs. Many people have taken the legal version of the ADA and twisted it to fit their circumstances—but have missed an important point: In order to meet the legal requirements for service dog title, the dog e should be. train yourself as a service dog, and the dog must be properly trained to perform the tasks. If a dog does anything other than accompany a person somewhere to “keep them awake” or “relieve anxiety”, they are not in compliance with federal law requiring training.
It costs $15,000-$20,000.00 to train a service dog. The high price reflects the intense and advanced training that takes hundreds of hours which ensures that the dog is obedient and can do its job in a variety of situations. Pet dogs are not equipped to deal with many of the unexpected societal obstacles that service dogs are well prepared and brilliant for.
