[il-talk] Fwd: Department of Transportation, Advanced Notice of Proposed Rule-Making on Traveling by Air With Service Animals

Tue Jun 5 12:49:20 UTC 2018

Dear Harris,
Thank you for this information. I will also  pass this along to the National
Association of Guide Dog Users, a division of NFB for review and possible
comment.

 Denise R. Avant, President
National Federation of the Blind of Illinois
(773)-991-8050
Live the life you want.
For more information about NFBI,
go to www.nfbofillinois.org.

-----Original Message-----
From: IL-Talk <il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Harris Singer via
IL-Talk
Sent: Tuesday, June 5, 2018 7:42 AM
To: NFB of Illinois Mailing List <il-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Harris Singer <harris.singer at gmail.com>
Subject: [il-talk] Fwd: Department of Transportation, Advanced Notice of
Proposed Rule-Making on Traveling by Air With Service Animals

Hi everyone,
The Department of Transportation is considering new rules for service
animals in air travel. The seeing Eye put this out to its graduates.
You are encouraged to submit comment on the proposed rules and questions
asked. The Seeing Eye provided their responses below.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: The Seeing Eye Advocacy <advocacy at seeingeye.org>
Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2018 17:26:49 -0500
Subject: Department of Transportation, Advanced Notice of Proposed
Rule-Making on Traveling by Air With Service Animals
To: Harris Singer <harris.singer at gmail.com>

The Seeing Eye

Dear Graduates of the Seeing Eye:

As many of you know, the U.S. Department of Transportation has issued an
Advanced Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPRM) concerning air travel with
service animals. This document provides notice to the public that DOT plans
to amend and clarify its regulations implementing the Air Carrier Access Act
in light of the challenges people working with service animals are facing
during air travel. DOT is seeking comments from the public on 10 specific
questions. You can submit comments by July 9 either on line, by fax, or by
mail. The ANPRM issued by the DOT can be found at
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=DOT-OST-2018-0068-0001

As graduates of The Seeing Eye, this is an opportunity for your voice to be
heard. If you have experienced difficulties during air travel with your
guide that you feel could be eliminated with clearer rules about traveling
with service animals, we urge you to consider submitting a comment at
https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=DOT-OST-2018-0068-1157

Please do your best to answer the specific questions asked so that your
comments will be as helpful as possible to DOT.

Below is the text of a comment The Seeing Eye just submitted to DOT.
The Seeing Eye has worked for decades to make sure guide dog users have
equal access to air travel but we cannot do it without help and support from
our graduates. Thank you for taking part in this process.
As always, if you have questions about advocacy or access issues, feel free
to email us at advocacy at seeingeye.org or call us at 1-800-539-4425.

Thank you,

Melissa Allman, Esq.
Senior Specialist, Advocacy and Government Relations The Seeing Eye

To: The U.S. Department of Transportation

From: The Seeing Eye, Inc.

Re: DOT-OST-2018-0068, RIN No. 2105-AE63

Traveling by Air with Service Animals

The Seeing Eye has been providing specially bred and trained guide dogs for
people who are blind or have low vision since 1929. Since that time, The
Seeing Eye has worked tirelessly to advocate for the rights of guide dog
users to have equal access to all modes of transportation including air
travel. At present, there are over 1,700 active Seeing Eye graduates in
North America and many of those people are regular air travelers. As Senior
Advocacy Specialist and a guide dog handler myself, I am submitting the
below comments on behalf of The Seeing Eye. I commend DOT's efforts to amend
and clarify its ACAA regulations to ensure safe and equal access to air
travel for people who work with service animals. The Seeing Eye's position
on the questions posed in the ANPRM is as follows:

Question 1: Whether psychiatric service animals should be treated similarly
to other service animals;

Question 2: Whether there should be a distinction between emotional support
animals and other service animals;

Comments to questions 1 and 2: Service animals should be defined as those
that are 1) individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person
with a disability and 2) public access trained. Animals that do not meet
both of these criteria should be designated as a separate and distinct
category from service animals.

Question 3: whether emotional support animals should be required to travel
in pet carriers for the duration of the flight;

Comment: Animals should be permitted to travel in the cabin without being
crated as long as they meet the criteria in the definition of service animal
proposed in comments 1 and 2.

Question 4: Whether the species of service animals and emotional support
animals that airlines are required to transport should be limited;

Comment: With respect to the species of service animals, the amended DOT
regulations should be consistent with the Department of Justice regulations
implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act. The result would be that
the species of service animals would be limited to dogs and in some narrow
circumstances, miniature horses.

Question 5: whether the number of service animals/emotional support animals
should be limited per passenger;

Comment: The Seeing Eye is concerned that as the number of service animals
traveling with a handler increases, the likelihood that the handler will be
able to effectively control the animals decreases.

Question 6: Whether an attestation should be required from all service
animal and emotional support animal users that their animal has been trained
to behave in a public setting;

Comment: No. An attestation would have no value because passengers could
provide assurances that the animal is trained to behave appropriately in
public regardless of the animal's actual behavior and there would be no way
to determine the veracity of these statements. Existing guidelines allow
airlines to refuse to transport service animals that are engaging in
disruptive or threatening behavior such as excessive barking, biting,
growling, jumping, eliminating in the terminal or aircraft, etc.
Furthermore, if the definition of service animal is limited to those that
are trained to perform work or tasks and public access trained, and all
other animals were required to be in pet carriers, airlines would be far
less likely to have problems with unruly or aggressive animals.

Question 7: Whether service animals and emotional support animals should be
harnessed, leashed, or otherwise tethered;

Comment: Service animals should be leashed or otherwise under the handler's
control at all times. There are times during air travel when it may be
appropriate for a passenger using a guide dog to remove its harness for the
comfort and safety of the dog. However, the guide dog handler still has
control over the dog in these limited circumstances because the leash is the
means of control.

Question 8: Whether there are safety concerns with transporting large
service animals and if so, how to address them;

Comment: If DOT adopts the definition of service animal proposed in comments
1 and 2, these safety concerns would be greatly decreased. On page 34, The
ANPRM states in part that

"Airlines have ... expressed safety concerns about large service animals in
the cabin, particularly large emotional support animals that have not
received disability-mitigation training.
... While the Department previously concluded that a service animal's
reasonable use of a portion of an adjacent seat's foot space does not deny
another passenger effective use of the space for his or her feet and is not
an adequate reason for the carrier to refuse to permit the animal to
accompany its user at his or her seat, some airlines have indicated that
passengers feel pressured to agree to such an arrangement and have later
expressed to airline personnel their dissatisfaction at having to share
their foot space."

If DOT requires air carriers to transport only dogs that are trained to
mitigate a disability and behave appropriately in public, it will be easier
for air carriers to simultaneously accommodate passengers using service
animals and assuage the potential concerns of passengers who are being asked
to help make that accommodation possible.

Question 9: whether airlines should be prohibited from requiring a
veterinary health form or immunization record from service animal users
without an individualized assessment that the animal would pose a direct
threat to the health or safety of others or would cause a significant
disruption in the aircraft cabin;

Comment: Yes. Airlines should be prohibited from requiring a veterinary
health form or immunization record from service animal users in advance of
travel. This requirement would place burdens and restrictions on service
animal users that are not placed on other passengers. For example, the
requirement could prevent service animal users from traveling on short
notice or checking in on line or at curb side. Moreover, once an air carrier
has made an individualized assessment that a service animal would pose a
direct threat or cause a significant disruption in an aircraft cabin,
veterinary records do nothing to mitigate the threat the animal potentially
poses and DOT regulations do not obligate air carriers to transport the
animal under those circumstances.

In closing, The Seeing Eye expresses its appreciation to DOT for the
opportunity to participate in the advanced rule making process on an issue
that is of paramount importance to our organization as a whole and our
graduates as individuals. If The Seeing Eye can provide any further
assistance or information on issues raised in this ANPRM given our areas of
expertise, please feel free to contact us.

Melissa R. Allman, Esq.
Senior Specialist, Advocacy and Government Relations The Seeing Eye, Inc.

P.O. Box 375, Morristown, NJ 07963-0375 (mail)
10 Washington Valley Road, Morristown, NJ 07960-3412 (deliveries)
973-539-4425 ext. 1724
Fax:  973-525-1081
advocacy at seeingeye.org

The Seeing Eye
10 Washington Valley Road
Morristown, NJ 07960
ph (973) 539-4425
e info at seeingeye.org

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