Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a service animal is a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability: guiding a person who is blind, alerting a person who is deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting to a seizure, reminding a person to take medication, interrupting a panic attack, and many others. The task must be directly related to the disability. There is a separate, limited provision for miniature horses. Emotional support animals, whose presence provides comfort but which are not trained to perform a task, are not service animals under the ADA; other laws and program rules may treat them differently, so route those questions to the responsible office rather than deciding at the counter.
When it is not obvious what a dog does, staff may ask exactly two questions: Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? and What work or task has the dog been trained to perform? Staff may not ask about the person’s disability, require medical documentation, require a certificate, identification card, vest or registration, ask that the dog demonstrate the task, or charge a fee or deposit. Certificates and registries sold online prove nothing and cannot be required. A service animal may go anywhere the public goes, including a lobby, an interview room and a meeting room.
A service animal must be under the handler’s control, usually by harness or leash unless that interferes with the task. Staff may ask that an animal be removed only if it is out of control and the handler does not take effective action, or if it is not housebroken. Even then, the person must be offered the chance to obtain services without the animal. Allergies and fear of dogs are not grounds for refusing access; if another person has an allergy, separate them by space, not by excluding the handler. And never pet, feed, call or make eye contact with a working animal. It is working, and the person is the one you are talking to.
