The Americans with Disabilities Act is an important piece of disability rights legislation in the United States. The Act was signed in 1990. It grants a number of protections for people with disabilities in order to grant them equal access to employment, government participation, and public spaces.
You probably see signs at the entrance every time that you go to the grocery store reading “No pets. Service Animals Welcome." This is because, under the ADA, establishments open to the public such as grocery stores, malls, restaurants, hospitals, and more are required to permit entry to service animals.
There is often a lot of confusion and misinformation about service animals. Here is what the ADA actually says about service animals.
What animals are considered service animals?
A service animal is a dog, or in special circumstances a miniature horse, that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability. They support people with all types of disabilities, including invisible disabilities. Service animals can be trained to provide mobility support, psychiatric tasks, guide work, medical alerts, and more.
Remember, someone does not need to “look disabled” in order to benefit from using a service dog. Keep an open mind when you see a service dog working in public and avoid distracting them.
Where are service animals permitted to accompany their handlers?
The ADA requires that service animals be allowed in State and local governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations that serve the public.
Service animals must be allowed to accompany people with disabilities in all areas of the facility where the public is permitted. However, they may be excluded from non-public areas such as employee-only areas (if the service dog handler is not an employee) or sterile areas such as hospital operating rooms where they may pose a health risk.
Do service animals need verification documents under the ADA?
Service animals do not need registration papers. There is a common misconception that there is a national service dog registry or some way to register a service dog. No such official registry exists. Individual training organizations may have registries or provide ID tags for the service animals that have been trained in their program, but service animals can also be owner-trained or trained by a private trainer rather than an organization.
Service animals typically wear vests or harnesses that signal that they are service animals, but this is technically not required by the ADA. The ADA simply requires that the animals be harnessed, leashed, or tethered unless such restraints would interfere with their ability to perform their required tasks.
There are two questions that can be asked of service dog handlers. These questions are:
- Is the dog a service animal that is required because of a disability?
- What work or task has the service animal been trained to perform?
These are the only two questions you may ask. You cannot request information on the handler’s medical diagnosis.
Can businesses deny entry to service animals?
Generally no, but if the animal causes a disturbance in the store you may ask the handler to remove their animal from your establishment. The ADA allows business owners or employees to request that a service dog be removed only when the dog is out of control and the handler does not take effective action to control it or if the dog is not housebroken.
A fear of dogs or dog allergies is not considered to be a valid reason to deny entry or remove a service dog from a business.
Are service animals allowed in the workplace?
Service animals are commonly allowed in the workplace. However, there is a different process.
Title I of the ADA requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for employees or job applicants with disabilities unless making the accommodation would cause undue hardship. Employees may request to bring their service animal to work as a reasonable accommodation. This typically needs to be done in writing and medical documentation of the employee’s need for accommodation may be requested if the disability is not apparent. However, caution should be used in relying on a written accommodation process. While it is strongly encouraged that employers adopt a written accommodation process to establish a procedure, an employee simply asking for accommodation could qualify as a reasonable accommodation request and as such, could pose challenges to employers that deny or ignore the verbal request.
Employers and their HR departments should work with the employee to evaluate the request for accommodation. Employers can explore and present alternative accommodations that would allow the employees to fulfill their job duties without the service animal. However, because service animals provide personalized tasks for their specific handler and many service animals are multi-purpose service animals (meaning they provide tasks to support their handler in managing multiple disabling conditions), alternate accommodations are not always possible or practical.
Service Animals do important work
The ADA granted important rights to service dog users as well as all people with disabilities. When you see a service animal in public, remember that they are working. Service animals do important work to support people with disabilities and help them maintain their independence.
People do improperly label their dogs as service animals to bring them into stores or other restricted spaces, but don’t let that prejudice you against all service animal handlers. When in doubt, business owners can ask the two approved questions to gather more information and verify that the animal is a service animal.
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