[nagdu] EEOC issues question

[Jenine Stanley]

Has anyone had success personally or through assisting someone else in a workplace situation where the dog is being made to stay in another area? 

Here’s a sketch of one situation. 

A person works in a factory type environment, small assembly kind of work. The employer has several blind employees with guide dogs and all of the dogs are housed in a separate room away from the people and the work floor. In case of emergency, people are told to just evacuate and their dogs will be taken to them by someone else. 

Recently during a tornado drill this did not happen. 

The individual who contacted us wants to have his dog near his work area enough so that he could get the dog himself and evacuate more safely.

I’ve advised him to ask for this as a “reasonable accommodation” under title I of the ADA. He has done so and the employer has denied his request. 

The next step is to file this with the EEOC but has anyone out there had success in such a facility with getting the dogs housed so that the handlers can manage them and use them in cases of emergency? 

I thought I recalled a situation where a number of handlers stood up to such a facility and got what they needed but now I can’t recall where that was and the circumstances. 

The difficulty with the Title I section of the ADA is that there’s not a lot about service animals in it and it’s all a balanced negotiation which is made even more difficult in these situations where someone is really nervous about going against the employer.

Jenine Stanley
jeninems at wowway.com

http://www.twitter.com/jeninems