[nagdu] National Epidemic of Horrible People Pretending to Be Disabled |

Mon Oct 14 18:25:46 UTC 2013

I don't see what the big deal is regarding stricter proof of
authenticity. That's why the schools give us ID cards, right? If
someone trains his or her own service dog, couldn't there be a way to
develop certification criteria that they would have to meet? For
example, if I'm in Milwaukee and I train my own guide, I should be
able to go to Madison, the state's capitol, to take some sort of
standardized test with my dog to prove that he/she is fit to work.
I guess the way I see it is that I'd rather be able to take my dog
with me and show her ID than to let things stand the way they are and
be refused entrance because too many people tried to pull a fast one.

On 10/14/13, Sheila Leigland <sleigland at bresnan.net> wrote:
>
> On 10/14/2013 10:25 AM, National Association of Guide Dog Users wrote:
>> Dear All, I think we should be  very skeptical of the flurry of such
>  > articles in the past couple months. Most of them have one thing in
>  > common: Most either refer to or are featuring CCI consumers. CCI is
>  > the organization promoting an online petition to regulate the online
>  > sale of service dog gear and identification.
>  >
>  > These reports have asserted it is a federal crime to pass a pet off
>  > as a service dog. I find it very interesting, as violation of the ADA
>  > is not a criminal offense, rather, the aDA is a civil law with no
>  > criminal remedies.
>  >
>  > It is my personal opinion that the prevalence of this sort of
>  > behavior is being intentionally exaggerated in an effort to support
>  > the need for certification. This would only benefit the training
>  > programs, not the disabled community. I am of the opinion that the
>  > best way to counter this issue - if it is really an issue - is to
>  > better educate places of public accommodation about what is really a
>  > service dog and that the rights of the disabled under the ADA are not
>  > absolute, but carry with it specific responsibilities of acceptable
>  > behavior.
>  >
>  > I received a call from a restaurant a couple weeks ago about someone
>  > who came in with an untethered  dog, claiming it was a service dog.
>  > The owner asked if it was a service dog and the patron told her that
>  > it was none of her business and she could not ask any questions
>  > because doing so was a violation of HIPAA. I advised her that she
>  > could and gave her the questions she could ask. I was advised the
>  > patron came in again a couple days later, she asked the right
>  > questions, he again made the same assertions, he was asked to leave,
>  > and he told her he would see her in court. She handed him our
>  > brochure and told him to give me a call if he had any questions.
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, it's a federal
>  > crime to use a fake service animal to take advantage of privileges
>  > reserved for those who genuinely need the assistance of such pets.
>  > Nonetheless, according to a recent report from the Associated Press,
>  > the use of phony "dog tags" is on the rise, with owners faking papers
>  > or buying badges off the Internet just so that they can bring their
>  > pooches into restaurants, shops, and other venues that don't usually
>  > allow dogs. Advocates of both pets and the disabled are divided as to
>  > how to police those who abuse service animal privileges, and some are
>  > calling for federal authorities to better regulate and enforce
>  > service animal rules around the country.
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > While it's assumed that only a small percentage of the population
>  > would even think of using a faux service dog to avoid leaving a pet
>  > outside a store or at home in order to grab a bite at a restaurant,
>  > even a single incident of phony service dog usage is enough to get
>  > people-disabled and able-bodied alike-up in arms. Outrage followed
>  > the story of a 33-year-old New Yorker named Brett David, who was
>  > featured in the New York Post over the summer. David bragged about
>  > bringing his fake "therapy dog" named Napoleon into movie theaters,
>  > restaurants, nightclubs, Whole Foods, Starbucks, and more mainly
>  > because "I was sick of tying up my dog outside," as he put it.
>  > "Sometimes, they'll give me a hassle and say bring the papers next
>  > time, but for five bucks, you order [a patch] off eBay, and it works
>  > 90 percent of the time," he explained.
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > People like David aren't the only ones pretending to be disabled to
>  > take advantage of special perks. In late September, the Walt Disney
>  > Company felt compelled to change its disabled guest policy at theme
>  > parks partly due to "abuse of the system." The announcement came
>  > after reports surfaced that wealthy guests were paying
>  > wheelchair-riding tour guides top dollar so that the group could use
>  > the line-skipping privileges granted to the disabled at Disney theme
>  > parks.
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > Meanwhile, over the years, police around the U.S. periodically engage
>  > in sweeps to round up drivers fraudulently using handicapped parking
>  > passes, and apparently it's pretty easy to snag people abusing the
>  > system. Last spring, over the course of a mere four hours,
>  > authorities in Oakland, Calif., confiscated 13 handicapped placards
>  > being used illegally by drivers. That's out of a total of 70 placards
>  > they came across, meaning nearly one in five was fraudulent.
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > A report in Seattle published over the summer estimated that one in
>  > eight drivers using disabled parking placards is doing so
>  > fraudulently, costing the city $1.4 million annually. Like in
>  > Seattle, drivers with such placards get to park for free in
>  > Providence, R.I., where it just so happens that there has been an
>  > influx of cars with disabled parking passes near train stations and
>  > bus stops. Police began routinely demanding verification and handed
>  > out multiple $500 fines to those who were using passes registered to
>  > someone else. "Not only is it an affront to the persons who have a
>  > disability and need the space, they're cheating the city out of
>  > revenue by parking there," one Providence police officer said of the
>  > offenders.
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > In yet another sting, in Orlando, Fla., police zeroed in on offenders
>  > like a 34-year-old woman using a placard registered to someone who
>  > was 85, and who had died a few months prior to the bust. Apparently,
>  > the driver, arrested just before 3 a.m., was using the placard in
>  > order to park in a convenient handicap spot downtown-so that her car
>  > was nearby when the bars closed.
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > Suspicions of disabled placard abuse have gotten so bad in New
>  > Jersey-where more than 500,000 people have special placard and
>  > license plate privileges-that the state introduced tougher
>  > regulations last spring. In the past, anyone who classified for a
>  > pass could renew automatically every three years. As of August 1,
>  > though, drivers must submit proof of their condition every three
>  > years before they're granted special privileges. Disabled parking
>  > placards were also redesigned so that it is easier for police and
>  > meter checkers to see expiration dates, and so that it's more
>  > difficult for drivers to unlawfully change the information on the
>  > passes.
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > Brad Tuttle @bradrtuttle
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > Brad Tuttle covers business and personal finance for TIME. He lives
>  > in Massachusetts with his wife and four sons, and also teaches
>  > journalism at UMass-Amherst.
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
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> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/sleigland%40bresnan.netthanks
>
> for pointing that out. I didn't think that it was a federal crime and I
> agree that more regulations of service gear will only benefit the
> training programs. I already am not convinced that the problem is as
> prevalent as people think and I also believe that training programs
> don't listen to blind folks as they should. It seems to me that anything
> that happens is often at first glance the handler's fault.
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