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Outside Article Service Dogs A Contentious Issue For Rocky Mountain ADA

By Pat Hill Pikes Peak Courier
Oct 2, 2023 Updated Oct 2, 2023

092723-cr-disability

Emily Shuman, executive director of the Rocky Mountain ADA Center, a six-state region in the West.
Pat Hill, Pikes Peak Courier

The go-to agency for questions about people with disabilities, Rocky Mountain ADA Center serves a six-county region in the West.

"The American Disabilities Act is the most comprehensive civil rights law for people with disabilities," said Emily Shuman, executive director of the ADA center that serves Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, N. Dakota, S. Dakota, and Utah.

Passed by Congress in July 1990, the bill established civil rights for people with disabilities, including those who use trained service dogs.

"Service animals are the most contentious part of the American with Disabilities Act," Shuman said. "It's the part that people get the most riled up about; they hate to see dogs in public and some have such strong feelings about animals."
The reactions caught the Department of Justice off-guard.

"When the ADA was first passed, the DOJ thought the service-animal piece would be the simplest," she said. "Instead, it's something that comes up regularly."

But the legislation established rules.

"A service animal, with their handler, has to be allowed anywhere the public goes," Shuman said.

Under the act, businesses are allowed to ask just two questions if a customer comes in with a dog: "Is this a service dog because of disability? And what work or task is the dog trained to perform?" Shuman said. "You can't ask for certification or registry."

Colorado law prohibits anyone other than the handler to interfere with the work of the service animal.

"On the flip side, the law states the people cannot knowingly misrepresent their pet as a service animal," Shuman said. "I've never seen that law get enforced."

If a person with a disability applies for a job, the employer is bound by law to consider the applicant's qualifications rather than the disability, including the presence of the dog.

"It's always shocking when employers make it clear that they are not hiring the person because of disability, which is against ADA regulations," Shuman said.

Sterile environments such as laboratories, swimming pools or zoos are the exceptions for the rules about employment with a service dog, Shuman said.

The law allows for gray areas.

"You can't unequivocally prove that the animal is served because you can only ask those two questions," she said. "So, you'd violate federal law by asking those two questions and then having to prove the person's intent."
The center, in all regions, provides training for businesses, state and local governments, organizations, retailers and agencies.

"We help them understand their legal obligations," Shuman said. "We do disability etiquette about how to interact with people with disabilities."

Funded by a grant from the federal government's Department of Human Services, the six-region center operates in conjunction with the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.

In addition to training, the center conducts studies such as how implicit bias causes barriers to implementation of ADA regulations.

"The study looks at funding, awareness of the ADA regulations, lack of buy-in and leadership as possible barriers to non-compliance," Shuman said. "Do assumptions, judgments and stereotypes of people with disabilities lead decision makers to pass them up for jobs?"

Another study focuses on law-enforcement interaction with people with disabilities and how implicit bias comes into play as a result.

Shuman and her staff of six work remotely from their home offices in Colorado Springs. But each will travel throughout the six states, if requested.

"Our goal is to provide education about the ADA and help people understand their rights and responsibilities," Shuman said. "We hope by doing that we'll help foster voluntary compliance with the ADA."

 
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