By Amanda Morris
August 28, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. EDT
Elizabeth Schoen's guide dog, Eva, is trained to help her navigate crowded, chaotic environments such as airports. The black Labrador knows how to find elevators, follow crowds to the baggage claim area and help Schoen, who is blind, avoid obstacles.
But when Schoen, 21, of Arlington, Va., tried to fly to Boston to tour graduate schools last March, airline staffers told her she could not take Eva on the plane.
She is one of many blind people who say they have encountered more difficulty taking service animals onto flights since new rules from the Department of Transportation took effect in January 2021. The regulations were an effort to crack down on a rise in passengers passing off untrained pets as service or emotional support animals. Some travelers tried to take peacocks, pigs, ducks and even miniature horses onboard aircraft. Some animals defecated on the planes or attacked crew members, passengers and legitimate service dogs.
The new rules state that emotional support animals are not considered service animals and narrow the definition exclusively to properly trained dogs. Airlines can require passengers to complete forms about their service dog's training at least 48 hours before their flight. Airlines also must make a reasonable effort to allow all passengers with service dogs to fly, even if they do not submit their forms in time.
But disability advocates say airlines seem to be interpreting the regulations differently, enforcing varying rules for submitting documents or rejecting forms from other airlines' websites.
Some passengers say their dogs have been rejected for simple paperwork mistakes. The required forms also have been difficult to fill out, blind travelers say, because they are often not compatible with the screen reader technology people use to convert text to speech.
In interviews, blind people told The Washington Post that the regulations are so difficult to navigate that they are now hesitant to fly or are anxious about the experience. Various organizations for the blind are calling for the forms to be changed or eliminated.
Department of Transportation data shows that the number of service-animal-related complaints from people with disabilities have more than doubled since the new regulations took effect. In 2018, the agency received 116 complaints. In 2022, the number was 451.
The agency acknowledged that people with disabilities are experiencing problems flying with their service animals and said in an email that it is taking their concerns seriously and "has begun looking further into those issues."
"It's a gigantic mess," said Albert Elia, a board member at the National Association of Guide Dog Users and a staff attorney at the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center, a nonprofit legal organization focused on disability justice.
Eva guides Schoen along a trail at Gravelly Point Park. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
Denied at the airport
Schoen originally tried to submit her form online four days before her JetBlue flight, but it was rejected by the airline. JetBlue's customer service advised her to bring the paperwork to the airport on the day of her flight.
When she arrived, airline staffers told her she had not submitted the form on time. Schoen tried to explain that JetBlue needed to make reasonable efforts to get her and Eva on the flight but was told that the airline had the right to turn her dog away.
"If you're denying my dog, you're denying me," she said.
Schoen missed her flight and spent about $400 to fly the next day with a different airline. She was later reimbursed for her original flight and learned that the form had been rejected because she had used an incorrect flight confirmation code.
The experience is one of many in which Schoen said she has had trouble submitting her form and been treated with suspicion by airline staffers.
"It's made me more scared. Every time I go to the airport, it's like, 'Are they going to stop me?'" Schoen said. "Even if I know I'm approved, I still feel this pressure, like I'm under a microscope."
The airline did not respond to questions about Schoen's experience, but JetBlue spokesman Derek Dombrowski wrote in an email that timely submission of the service dog form is necessary to determine whether a dog is qualified to travel. He wrote that roughly 80 percent of applications are approved but that "customers who do not submit in advance may not be able to travel."
August 28, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. EDT
Elizabeth Schoen's guide dog, Eva, is trained to help her navigate crowded, chaotic environments such as airports. The black Labrador knows how to find elevators, follow crowds to the baggage claim area and help Schoen, who is blind, avoid obstacles.
But when Schoen, 21, of Arlington, Va., tried to fly to Boston to tour graduate schools last March, airline staffers told her she could not take Eva on the plane.
She is one of many blind people who say they have encountered more difficulty taking service animals onto flights since new rules from the Department of Transportation took effect in January 2021. The regulations were an effort to crack down on a rise in passengers passing off untrained pets as service or emotional support animals. Some travelers tried to take peacocks, pigs, ducks and even miniature horses onboard aircraft. Some animals defecated on the planes or attacked crew members, passengers and legitimate service dogs.
The new rules state that emotional support animals are not considered service animals and narrow the definition exclusively to properly trained dogs. Airlines can require passengers to complete forms about their service dog's training at least 48 hours before their flight. Airlines also must make a reasonable effort to allow all passengers with service dogs to fly, even if they do not submit their forms in time.
But disability advocates say airlines seem to be interpreting the regulations differently, enforcing varying rules for submitting documents or rejecting forms from other airlines' websites.
Some passengers say their dogs have been rejected for simple paperwork mistakes. The required forms also have been difficult to fill out, blind travelers say, because they are often not compatible with the screen reader technology people use to convert text to speech.
In interviews, blind people told The Washington Post that the regulations are so difficult to navigate that they are now hesitant to fly or are anxious about the experience. Various organizations for the blind are calling for the forms to be changed or eliminated.
Department of Transportation data shows that the number of service-animal-related complaints from people with disabilities have more than doubled since the new regulations took effect. In 2018, the agency received 116 complaints. In 2022, the number was 451.
The agency acknowledged that people with disabilities are experiencing problems flying with their service animals and said in an email that it is taking their concerns seriously and "has begun looking further into those issues."
"It's a gigantic mess," said Albert Elia, a board member at the National Association of Guide Dog Users and a staff attorney at the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center, a nonprofit legal organization focused on disability justice.
Eva guides Schoen along a trail at Gravelly Point Park. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
Denied at the airport
Schoen originally tried to submit her form online four days before her JetBlue flight, but it was rejected by the airline. JetBlue's customer service advised her to bring the paperwork to the airport on the day of her flight.
When she arrived, airline staffers told her she had not submitted the form on time. Schoen tried to explain that JetBlue needed to make reasonable efforts to get her and Eva on the flight but was told that the airline had the right to turn her dog away.
"If you're denying my dog, you're denying me," she said.
Schoen missed her flight and spent about $400 to fly the next day with a different airline. She was later reimbursed for her original flight and learned that the form had been rejected because she had used an incorrect flight confirmation code.
The experience is one of many in which Schoen said she has had trouble submitting her form and been treated with suspicion by airline staffers.
"It's made me more scared. Every time I go to the airport, it's like, 'Are they going to stop me?'" Schoen said. "Even if I know I'm approved, I still feel this pressure, like I'm under a microscope."
The airline did not respond to questions about Schoen's experience, but JetBlue spokesman Derek Dombrowski wrote in an email that timely submission of the service dog form is necessary to determine whether a dog is qualified to travel. He wrote that roughly 80 percent of applications are approved but that "customers who do not submit in advance may not be able to travel."