The ADA Restoration Act, Stadium Seating, and Animals in the Classroom
June 17, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
In the past year, there have been more and more reports about the benefits of therapy dogs for autistic children at home and at school. There’s also been at least one instance in which a therapy dog was excluded from the schoolbus and a preschool, as happened to 4-year-old Jayden Qualis in Manteca, California.
Currently, Congress is considering the ADA Restoration Act (HR 3195 and S 1881), which defines disabilities more broadly than some other recent court decisions, and therefore has higher education officials concerned. HR 3195 amends
……the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to: (1) redefine “disability” as a physical or mental impairment, a record of a such impairment, or being regarded as having a such impairment; and (2) define additional terms, including “mental impairment” and “physical impairment.”
At the same time, the Department of Justice is proposing new regulations that would “limit the accommodations universities and other entities must provide under the existing law,” according to the June 17th Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription only). The new regulations call for:
(1) A decrease in the proportion of seats that an “assembly area”—such as a stadium or sports arena—has to make accessible to people who use wheelchairs:
“Now that figure is about 1 percent, with the exact proportion depending on the size of the venue. A stadium of 5,000 seats, for example, must provide space for 51 wheelchairs. Stadiums larger than that must provide one more space for every 100 additional seats. Under the proposed new regulations, a stadium of 5,001 seats would have to provide space for 36 wheelchairs. One more space would be required for every 200 additional seats a stadium has. For a stadium with a 50,000-person capacity, that would mean 261-as opposed to 501-handicapped-accessible spots.”
(2) Limits on service animals, which are to be distinguished from “emotional support animals”; the latter are not covered under federal law:
“Animals whose sole function is to provide emotional support, comfort, therapy, companionship, therapeutic benefits, or promote emotional well-being are not service animals,” the Justice Department said in an early copy of the proposed regulations posted online.
Support animals, like ferrets and snakes, have been a sticking point for colleges, where students have asked to keep them in residence halls and take them to class.
“The arguments have been made with increasing frequency in recent years that lots of animals other than traditional service animals should qualify,” said Michael R. Masinter, a professor of law at Nova Southeastern University. The new regulations would define service animals as those that are specially trained to perform a demonstrable task. That definition may still include “psychiatric-service animals” that remind their owners to take medication or that interrupt incidents of cutting or other self-mutilation.”
The decrease in the proportion of seats for people with wheelchairs does not directly affect autistic individuals, but it certainly affects individuals with disabilities. A literal decrease in the numbers of places for disabled individuals in a public setting is a change in the wrong direction.
The proposed regulations about service animals vs. “emotional support animals” need to be considered as there is more interest for autistic children to be accompanied by therapy dogs in public settings, such as schools. Will arguments be made distinguishing a visually impaired person’s need for a seeing eye dog, in contrast to an autistic child’s need for a therapy dog to calm and lessen her or his anxiety?
And, there is generally a lot of hesitation to referring to autism and autism spectrum disorders in the category of “mental disability/impairment/health, etc.” But what if recourse to such categories is necessary to ensure that an autistic child can have a therapy dog in school with them?
Nicholas would love to have a ferret, but they are not allowed in CA, not sure why. He will have to do with reading the Ferrets mag.
Both my kids are scared of dogs, but Nick likes to watch Dog Whisperer and there is a show on Nat’L Geo called Dogs with Jobs and we often see assistance dogs for those on the spectrum.
My sister has been blind since a brain tumor operation as a child and uses a cane and scared of dogs too. I have read of several instances where dogs not allowed in classroom due to other kids alletrgies and I think one kid was deaf and could not have dog at school.
On another note – I have heard that many who have small kids pretend their child has autism to avoid long lines at Disneyland and Disney World.
Also from the article
“…The proposed revisions of regulations, he said, were driven by professional arenas, which tend to draw fewer fans with disabilities than do college stadiums (My note is that some college stadiums may be drawing greater than the current defined 1%, and one office has called this a “step backwards”.) .
The new regulations, if unchanged after a PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD, would be roughly comparable to the terms of a recent settlement between the federal government and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. This spring, in response to a lawsuit over handicapped-accessible seating in its football stadium, the university agreed to provide 329 spots—or a third of a percent of its 107,000 seats—for fans in wheelchairs…”
———————————-
Public comments will be accepted until August 18, 2008.
Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations and in Commercial Facilities
Agency: DOJ
Document Type: PROPOSED RULES Comments Due: Aug 18, 2008
Docket ID: DOJ-CRT-2008-0015
Document ID: DOJ-CRT-2008-0015-0001
To view document and submit a comment electronically or by US Mail
http://tinyurl.com/6q4xgo
” Will arguments be made distinguishing a visually impaired person’s need for a seeing eye dog, in contrast to an autistic child’s need for a therapy dog to calm and lessen her or his anxiety?”
OK first off visually impair individuals have their guide dogs which is a service animal trained to guide them to stop at curbs and at other change of levels, to intelligently disobey a cue if there poses a danger. Henceforth under the ADA are protected.
Psychiatric dogs will be protected as well for they are Service Animals even though one may have panic attacks and the animal gives emotional support they are still trained to perform various tasks. This task maybe just to go into what is called splitting to stop massive people from coming into your space, Targeting ones lap, leg, hand for calming a person from having an attack, bring daily meds, or breath heavy into a persons face or ear. Though these may be small tasks for the normal eye, these are still tasks in which makes these animals Service Animals under the Definition in the ADA.
That also goes with Autistic Service Animals. Although they may give lots of emotional support and become quite therapeutic. They still have some individually trained tasks to perform that benefits the autistic person and their caregivers. For these Autistic SD’s also must intelligently disobey or follow as it were when a individual goes to run off in the direction of on coming traffic. I just saw a video tape not long ago about this sort of training. Henceforth making these animals a Service Animal. Or like many would say a traditional Service animal due to the fact that they are taught to perform certain tasks.
I think the problem is that people don’t think of what actually tasks these animals are doing that were trained whether be by school programmes, private trainers, or individuals themselves. If it’s only one trained task that’s all that’s needed then an animal is a Service animal. However under the new definition the exotic animals will be excluding along with farm animals. This means no ferrets (though my understanding of ferrets are the amount of sleep time is needed so not sure how they could help much). No more monkeys (therefore Helping hands organization will be gone.) No more horses, pigs, goats. That will mean the Mini Horses will be out. Therefore the Guiding Horse Foundation will have some issues. It’s only going to be domesticated animals. (dogs and cats apparently). Sigh!
Big sigh.
My son is wary around animals—small dogs especially—-but the calming and other tasks you note would assist him in many ways. It’s his anxiety and need to self-calm that can often limit how much he participates in activities.
I would think that small dogs wouldn’t be the best animal as they tend to be quite hyper as well. Henceforth triggering an anxiety attack instead of calming down. Is there an animal that maybe less wary in your son’s eyes?
If so you could basically start introducing this type of animal into your home with your son. Making the transition less stressful. It wouldn’t matter what type of animal because it wouldn’t fall under the ADA. If your in a rental as such Emotional Support animals (no formal training), are covered under the FHA.
Then after your son is comfortable with being around this particular animal you may be able to introduce a dog into the mitts. I would do this procedure slowly so you wouldn’t cause an attack per say. If you are able to introduce him to a dog (oh remember to test the dog for the right temperament to become a SD), then you could start the training process. Training a service animal takes a lot of time but working in your home would actually be an added benefit for all of you. You could also teach the dog that when your son would get up (not being calm in another room) to come get you after checking on your son. Hope this helps.
Related:
Just received from the
Disability Policy Collaboration: Partnership of The Arc & United Cerebral Palsy
The US Senate 0n 9/11/08 passed unamimously, and without amendment, The ADA Amendments Act (S. 3406)
Title: A bill to restore the intent and protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Sponsor: Sen. Tom Harkin +77 bipartisan co-sponsors.
The House may be taking this bill up next week in identical form in lieu of House version (HR 3195).
Summary from Disability Policy Collaboration,
The ADA Amendments Act will correct narrow court interpretations that have restricted ADA coverage in the workplace, and weakened coverage for individuals with developmental disabilities, diabetes, epilepsy, serious heart conditions, and cancer. The act will also clarify responsibilities for employers.
See the link to bill information for full text, co-sponsors, congressional actions, and link to HR 3195.
Thanks for that information. I was wondering if it was passed or not.
President Bush Signs ADA Amendments Bill
Bill Leonard
Society for Human Resource Management
“President Bush on Sept. 25, 2008, signed into law landmark legislation that will clarify and strengthen worker protections guaranteed by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)…
The law is set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2009.
Both houses of Congress passed the ADA Amendments Act (S 3406) with overwhelming bipartisan support. The measure was introduced to make legislative fixes for several federal court rulings and restore the original intent of Congress when the law was enacted…”
FULL TEXT and link to the bill/now law
If you go to the Search Documents page, of Regulations.gov, and search under search term, for example, “service animal” (with the quotes) you can see the comments submitted under the request for comment
and the organizations and individuals that submitted.
I didn’t see a final ruling on the regulation proposal(s) for stadium seating and service animals–doesn’t mean there isn’t one, just that I didn’t see an obvious posting.
(sorry about all the comments–having a bout of restlessness :-/).