I’m waiting for the day when service dogs are not news. A time when most people know about service
dogs, they see them often as they go about their errands, at social gatherings,
in restaurants. For there to be as much
shock and surprise about people being unaware of the rights of people with
service dogs as there might be for someone to say, “Starbucks? … What’s that?”.
There is so much contradictory and mis-information in cyber
world about service dogs, particularly about service dogs for people whose
disabilities are not readily apparent to others (like diabetes, seizures, post
traumatic stress, to name a few).
A recent online news story shared the experience of a young
teenager in Alabama with a seizure disorder who was struggling with businesses
in his area allowing him access with his new seizure assistance dog. Read the news article here). Several local business owners said they were unaware
about access laws under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The article called service dogs a
“novelty”. Really? A novelty?
I know that many people are unaware about service dogs for people who
have “invisible disabilities”—after all it’s part of my job to help raise
awareness around this issue. But a
novelty? Hmm.
Although there is no truly reliable resource for statistics
about how many people in the U.S. use a service dog to increase their
independence and enhance their quality of life; some reports note there are approximately
15,000 people plus another 10,000 guide dogs for the blind throughout the US
and Canada. Personally, I think that
number is low. There are literally
hundreds of organizations providing service dogs annually. The number of service dog teams will continue
to grow and one day – hopefully soon – service dogs will no longer be a
novelty. And business owners will no
longer be in the dark about their obligations to allow access.
For more information about service dogs and their use for
people with invisible disabilities, please visit our website at www.ServiceDog411.com.
Great post!
ReplyDeleteI read and I have found some interesting information about service dogs that you should like to read. http://www.freedomservicedogs.org/
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tdi-dog.org/
http://www.servicedogssavelives.org/laws.html
http://www.servicedogs.org/
You can post these on your FB page some have videos.