Service Dog Binder

Disability law is largely regulated by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. This Act prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in employment, housing, education, and access to public services.

Service Dogs, through their disabled handler, have special legal rights under the ADA and state and local laws. To ensure your dog is legal it needs to have documentation to prove it's training and your legal disabilty.

Your Disability

First you must establish your legal disability. A medical disability is not an automatic legal disabilty. Pregnacy for example is a short-term medical disabilty, that does not give you a legal disablity.

The ADA defines a disability as any of the following: (Department of Justice, 2002)
  1. "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of the individual."
  2. "a person who has a history or record of such an impairment or"
  3. "a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment."
While alcoholism is included as a disability, other socially undesirable behavior is excluded from the Act. For example, sexual behavior disorders like pedophilia or transvestism, compulsive gambling, and pyromania are all excluded. The ADA, however, does not list all impairments covered. The ADA further requires that reasonable accomodation be made so as to provide individuals with disabilities equal opportunities. Agenices and departments charged with enforcement of the ADA include the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Justice.

States may pass disability statutes so long as they are consistent with the ADA.

Florida State Law: Title 30 - 413.08 Rights of Physically Disabled Persons(b)
"Individual with a disability" means a person who is deaf, hard of hearing, blind, visually impaired, or otherwise physically disabled.

Individual Training

The ADA defines a service animal as any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability. If they meet this definition, animals are considered service animals under the ADA regardless of whether they have been licensed or certified by a state or local government. (Department of Justice, 1996).

Your Binder

After reviewing the above you will need a copy of any medical reports or doctors statements that lists you as having a condition listed as a long-term disability, which will last over a year. A simple note that says "Jane Doe is disabled in my opinion" is not enough. It must be documented with a proponderance of evidence to make a solid disability case.

Your service dog, whether school trained, privately trained or owner trained needs to have records indicating the number of hours of training, what the training consisted of and how it relates to the disability. ADI (Assistance Dogs International, Inc.) is the standards organization that gives guidelines on service dog training, every respected trainer goes above and beyond their minimum standards to ensure they have a highly trained and professional service dog.

Should your dog ever get in to trouble or a legal suit arises that challenges your service dogs qualification, your binder is your best defense, it clearly lays out that the dog is properly trained, that you are legally disabled and that it is not a pet. Without this documentation it would be very hard to prove to a federal judge that you did any training without putting on a dog-and-pony show for them.

Certification

Many service dog schools, including Service Dogs of Florida, offer certification for the service dogs they train. Some even offer it to Owner/Trained service dogs, if they pass the same tests as the other dogs. This certification provides an unbiased and standardized way to certify if a service dog has completed their training and met all the requirements of the ADA and the Disabled Handler. A 3rd party certification gives reassurance to Owner-Trained dogs that their dog is up to par and legalizes that the training is coinsistant with the industry and the ADA.
Certification is not required by the ADA, but can be used to support the dogs training through an independant 3rd party.

Binder Contents



Upon Demand

Under US Law, the only authority that can decide if your service dog is legal or not is a federal judge. That judge has the authority to demand all records of the dog, including your medical information to verify if you are legally entitled to have a service dog under the ADA. Failure to prove this could result in several felonies for impersonating a disabled person, unauthorized use of service dog (if it was trained), and/or criminal fraud (if the dog is not trainined). Fraud has increased in recent years and the legal system is cracking down severly on untrained dogs.

ADA & Papers?

"I thought the ADA said no papers were required.", partly it says you are not required to carry any papers to gain access to the public. I.e. every wheelchair has a serial number, but gate keepers are not required to actually look it up and see if it was assigned to you.

The ADA's two main requirments are being legally disabled and training tasks for the animal to assist you. Unless you have an apparent disbility, like being blind, it's takes a doctors note, or other authority to prove you are disabled. The burdon of proof is on the disabled handler, you have to prove to the court that you are disabled because you are claiming you have additional rights under the ADA. To state a prima facie case, an ADA plaintiff must allege that he is a "qualified individual with a disability." A disability may be "(A) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual; (B) a record of such an impairment; or (C) being regarded as having such an impairment."

A Service Dog is not a Pet

Hotels, Landlords, HOA's, Parks, Airlines and Businesses all charge extra for pets. A service dog is not a pet, never refer to it as such. It's a working animal and a companion, but never a pet. In the eyes of the law it is no more than a wheelchair that is allowed to be with you everywhere you go. You can not legally be charged a different price for having a service animal with you.