Rights of the Disabled Under the ADA to Travel with a Service Animal

For a disabled individual, a service dog can be invaluable. The benefits to the visually impaired are most obvious. But did you realize that even a dog that you initially acquired as a pet can be considered a service animal when he provides support to a person who is mentally disabled?

Individuals afflicted with social anxiety disorder can become virtual shut-ins with no regular outside contact. It becomes a self-exacerbating problem for many. There is a therapeutic benefit in the interaction between a dog and its master. When that master is disabled by mental illness - whether it be bipolar disorder, social anxiety disorder, or any of the functional mental illnesses - the dog's role can increase to that of a support animal. He can enable the individual to leave home and give him a confidence that traveling alone it may not be possible to mentally muster.

The support and/or service animal designation is an important one. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (the "ADA"), privately owned businesses that serve the public cannot discriminate against the disabled. The ADA mandates that businesses such as restaurants, hotels, retail stores, taxicabs, theaters, concert halls, and sports facilities admit individuals accompanied by their service animal.

The ADA defines a service animal as any dog or animal individually trained to provide assistance to a disabled person. There is no state or local government licensing required for a disabled individual to hold their animal out as a service animal when it performs such functions.

The most common service animal is of course the Seeing Eye dog. But there are animals that alert the hearing impaired to sounds, there are animals that carry or pick up things for the disabled, there are animals that pull wheelchairs, and there are animals that assist those with impairments that interfere with balance. But the mentally ill benefit greatly from traveling with a support animal too; even when the animal is initially acquired as a pet, a mentally ill individual can become so reliant on the animal for confidence in leaving the home that the animal becomes trained to provide more of a support function.

No matter the service animal's purpose to the disabled individual, the animal isn't required to wear any special harness or collar, it isn't even required to carry any kind of licensing or certification papers that distinguish it from a pet. A business owner may ask an individual if an animal is a service animal and he may even ask if the individual has documentation that the animal is a service animal or that the individual is disabled. Such documentation is not required as a condition to allowing the individual in your establishment with the animal - even in states that have programs to certify support animals.

Individuals traveling with a service animal must have access to the same areas of a protected facility as every other person admitted. It doesn't matter if you have a sign up that says "No Pets" because the ADA specifically distinguishes pets and service animals. Often a business owner will only have the person's word that their animal is a service animal and not a pet particularly when the animal is a support animal for mental illness or some other "invisible disability".

A business cannot charge a special fee to those with service animals for cleaning or maintenance. Even a business that collects fees for those traveling with pets cannot charge a fee for those whose animals are support animals. However, if a support animal causes damage that could be charged to any person in a facility who caused the same type of damage, the disabled individual can be charged a similar fee.

Business owners have no special responsibility to the service animal while it is on its premises. In fact, if the service animal provides a threat to others on your property - vicious behavior, growling - you may legally exclude it from your property. This even includes a service animal that barks through a movie.

A disabled individual who does not look obviously disabled and travels with a service animal for support may want to print up a card for the dog with his service animal designation, the dog's name and possibly tag number, as well as the animal's breed, color, and weight. Of course your service animal should have all necessary vaccination tags for your local jurisdiction. On the back of the printed card for the animal, you may want to include a summary of the law such as the following: "For information on a retail establishment's obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act with respect to disabled Americans traveling with support dogs, please see the July 26, 1996 report issued by the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division and the National Ass'n of Attorneys General. For further questions, please contact the Department of Justice toll free ADA hotline at (800) 514-0301."