Understanding Service Dogs and ADA Cards: What You Need to Know
Service dogs are task trained animals that provide assistance to people with disabilities. To help ensure that service dogs and their handlers are protected under the law, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) allows for special cards that can be used to notify the public and businesses of your rights. In this guide, we'll explore what service dogs are, how they can help, and what you need to know about ADA service cards. This guide is helpful for anyone that is trying to understand more about service dogs, service teams and accessibility rights in public places.
What's Inside This Guide:
- What is a Service Dog
- Purpose Service Dogs Provide for Handlers
- What Tasks a Service Dog can Perform
- Description of ADA Cards
- How to Get an ADA Law Card
- Rights and Responsibilities of Service Dog Owners
- Why Service Dogs ADA Cards are Useful
- What to Look for in ADA Service Cards
- Conclusion
What is a service dog?
Tasks service dogs provide for handlers
What tasks can a service dog perform?
What is an ADA card and how does it relate to service dogs?
How do you obtain an ADA card?
What are your rights and responsibilities as a service dog owner?
Why an ADA card is useful to service teams
What to look for in a Service Dog Cards
Basic features you need on an ADA card
- Reference to ADA Law with contact number and/or website
- Basic requirements for access to public places
Best features for service dog cards
- Specific information related to what people and businesses can or should do around service teams
- Specific information related to what people and business cannot or shouldn't do around service teams
- The ability to edit text on your ADA law card to be more specific to your dog and their tasks performed
- The ability to customize your service dog card based on the most common violations of ADA law that you and your team experience
- Reminder to the reader that not all disabilities are visible
- A photo of your dog or your dogs breed
Conclusion
Service dogs provide a lifeline to people with disabilities. They perform many tasks that aide the handler in their daily activities. Often times, the disabilities are not visible to others. This does not negate or minimize the need of the tasks performed by service dogs for their handler.
Service teams are able to use ADA cards to educate or remind those that are unaware of how the Americans with Disabilities Act protects service dogs under the law. Service dogs ADA cards can be given to businesses, employees or the general public in an effort to increase understanding and decrease stress for the handler.
Next time you encounter a service team in action, remember to admire the work the service dog is doing the handler from afar. It's also important to keep in mind that interfering with a working service dog distracts them from the important work that they do for the handler and in some situations could be putting their life at risk.
For more information on service dog ADA cards or to find one that works for you and your service team CLICK HERE.
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