[nagdu] Local business asks service dog to leave

[Julie J]

Albert,

Interesting questions...There is no way to know how a judge would interpret 
any of this.  So everything I'm saying is strictly conjecture.

The training of the dog is important, but if the person doesn't have a 
qualifying disability, no amount of training will make the dog a service 
dog.  Example-Monty is a trained guide dog, but if my sighted husband takes 
him to the grocery store, all that training doesn't matter because it isn't 
mitigating any disability.  It would be fraudulent for my nondisabled 
husband to claim the need for a guide dog.

the first burden of proof in court would be, does the person have a 
disability as defined under the ADA?  When we are talking about blindness, 
it's pretty easy because level of vision is pretty easy to test and assign a 
number.  It is generally agreed that 20/200 or less vision in the better eye 
or a field of vision less than some number that escapes me at the moment. 
That's all straightforward.  Likewise deafness can be measured and noted 
very similarly.  People who use a wheelchair are also pretty straightforward 
as being disabled.  Where it gets sticky is with conditions that come and 
go, or the effects aren't consistent.  Under the ADA a disability must 
substantially limit your daily life.  They use seeing, hearing and walking 
as examples.

To dig deeper you have to read into case law.  In Toyota vs. Williams, Ms. 
Williams hands were injured so that she could no longer do her job.  she was 
let go by Toyota.  In court she claimed that she had a disability and was 
discriminated against by Toyota by being fired from her job.  It was 
determined that Ms. Williams was not disabled because she still had enough 
function in her hands to brush her hair and teeth, even though there were 
many other tasks she could not perform, including her job duties, which if 
I'm remembering correctly were obtained by an accident at her job with 
Toyota.

A diagnosis does not make a disability.  Two people can be diagnosed with 
the same seizure disorder, one could be considered to be disabled and the 
other not.  It depends on how that diagnosis presents itself in the daily 
life of the individual.  Person A might be disabled if they have seizures on 
a daily or weekly basis which limit their ability to leave their home, work, 
or care for themselves.  Person B might not be considered to be disabled if 
they only have seizures every few months because they can still go about 
their normal affairs with little interruption.

My understanding has always been that outside of easily measurable 
disabilities like blindness, only a judge can determine if a person is 
considered to be disabled.  Toss in psychiatric disabilities and you can see 
how messy this gets in a hurry.
Anyway I've gotta get to a meeting.  I'll think more on it and see if I can 
come up with anything that explains it more clearly.

Julie