Why Maine's Human Rights Panel Ruled Correctly that Man with "Service Dog" Was Not Discriminated Against

by Sharon Wachsler

The Bangor Daily News reported last week that a Dennysville man's complaint of discrimination was not supported by the Maine Human Rights Commission panel that investigated the incident. The issue arose when Kenneth Stanhope was asked by a manager at Helen's Restaurant in Machias for documents proving that his pit bull is a service dog.

BDN lays out the crux of the matter:

At question was whether Helen’s had asked questions of Stanhope that violated the Human Rights Act, which states that the only permissible questions to ask of a person who presents with a service animal are whether the animal is required because of a disability, and what work or task the animal has been trained to perform. 

Stanhope alleged that Helen’s manager had asked to see documentary proof that his pit bull, Sneg, was in fact a service animal, which an HRC investigator, Michele Dion, said was not allowed by the law. 

In its response, Helen’s Restaurant did not deny that documentation was requested, but said that Sneg had growled menacingly at one of the restaurant’s employees in the past, prompting the owner, who was not named in the investigator’s report, to question Stanhope. After Stanhope left the restaurant in frustration, the owner researched the state’s law and called Stanhope to apologize for asking for documentation.

As a member of the service dog community since 1998 and a service dog trainer, I applaud this ruling. The issue in the case of Steg, above, is not related to him being a pit bull. The issue is the dog's behavior.

A service dog is defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as a dog that has been individually trained to mitigate the effects of the handler's disability by performing tasks or working. More and more disabled people are bringing dogs into the community and identifying them as service dogs. In many cases, these are service dogs. What their breed or perceived breed is, is irrelevant. It doesn't matter if they are pit bulls, German Shepherd Dogs, Labrador Retrievers, or Poodles. What is relevant is their temperament, comportment and level of training. There are many excellent, well-trained pit bull service dogs.

A serious problem is that some dogs that are being referred to or dressed as service dogs by their disabled owners are not actually service dogs. Some of these dogs may be well-behaved pets who have not been tasked trained to mitigate the effects of the handler's disability. Other dogs, whether they have been trained in assistance tasks or not, cannot be service dogs because the handler cannot keep them under control. A service dog cannot be a "reasonable accommodation" if its behavior is disruptive to the place of business.

Here's a section from the Commonly Asked Questions page on service dogs from the Department of Justice:

10. Q: What if a service animal barks or growls at other people, or otherwise acts out of control? 

A: You may exclude any animal, including a service animal, from your facility when that animal's behavior poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others. For example, any service animal that displays vicious behavior towards other guests or customers may be excluded. You may not make assumptions, however, about how a particular animal is likely to behave based on your past experience with other animals. Each situation must be considered individually. 

Although a public accommodation may exclude any service animal that is out of control, it should give the individual with a disability who uses the service animal the option of continuing to enjoy its goods and services without having the service animal on the premises. 

11. Q: Can I exclude an animal that doesn't really seem dangerous but is disruptive to my business? 

A: There may be a few circumstances when a public accommodation is not required to accommodate a service animal--that is, when doing so would result in a fundamental alteration to the nature of the business. Generally, this is not likely to occur in restaurants, hotels, retail stores, theaters, concert halls, and sports facilities. But when it does, for example, when a dog barks during a movie, the animal can be excluded.

A dog that is aggressive or reactive or that otherwise interferes with the normal workings of the business with bad behavior is not a service dog and must be removed by their handler. Further, unless this is an isolated episode -- such as the result of an acute medical problem that can be effectively treated and remediated -- this dog should not be asked to work in public again. Bringing a reactive or aggressive dog into public settings is not fair to the dog, the handler, or the public.

Unfortunately, many people don't know that aggression or other disruptive behavior (whining, howling, urinating, or defecating in a place of business) automatically strips the handler's right to access with that dog. The burden is on the handler, in these cases, to remove the dog, attempt to ameliorate any damage the dog may have done, and address the problem with the dog and/or the dog's veterinarian or trainer.

This is an area where perception of the law has not caught up with what the law actually requires. The case of "Steg" is all-too-exemplary; the handler filed a discrimination complaint even though he did not have access rights in this case, and some of the Human Rights Commission wanted to uphold his his so-called access rights to be accompanied by an aggressive dog.

For more information on this topic:

• New Hampshire Governor's Commission on Disability "Service/Assistance Animals" page 
• International Association of Assistance Dog Partner (IAADP)'s "Minimum Training Standards for Public Access"
• ADA.gov revised (2011) definition of service animals under the ADA

It behooves the disability community, including assistance dog activists and disability rights activists, to protect the rights of disabled handlers with trained service dogs. Part of this protection is to work against the culture of tolerance that allows disabled people to bring untrained or reactive dogs into public. I am hopeful that more rulings like the Maine Human Rights Panel's ruling will help clarify the legal access rights of disabled people accompanied by service dogs.

VA Home Loans for Disabled Veterans

This post was contributed by VA Home Loan Centers.

Of the 22 million veterans currently living in this country are 5.5 million living with some form of disability. 3.4 million of these veterans sustained their disability as a result of service. 2.9 million veterans receive service-related compensation yearly. As a result of 12 continuous years of war, qualitative advancements in medical technology and the influx of severe burns and amputations, the post-2002 number of veterans with a 70 percent or higher disability rating has exponentially increased. Nearly 590,000 veterans have been assigned a disability rating of greater than 70 percent by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The VA provides numerous benefits to military members who have sustained a service-related disability; many of these entitlements pertain to homeownership. The VA home loan allows for qualified applicants to receive housing adaptation grants. The Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) and the Special Housing Adaptation  (SHA) grants enable owner occupied homes to be modified to the specific needs of the individual. The SAH grant as stated by the VA is to be used to “create a barrier free environment.” This grant is designed to make a home more wheelchair accessible. The SHA grant was tailor-made to assist veteran homeowners who have suffered reduced vision or blindness create a safer more inhabitable living space.  Redeemable for $67,555 (SAH) and $13,511 (SHA), these grants can be used to customize already owned homes or homes being purchased. Examples of allowable adaptations include but are not limited to:

• Added Ramps

• Added Stair Lifts

• Specialized bathroom fixtures, toilets and baths

• Increased storage space

• Added stair rails

• Added outdoor lighting

• Paving/adding wheelchair paths

Furthermore, these adaptations are applicable to the home of a family member if the loan applicant makes the home their primary residence. Eligibility for these grants is based on the severity of the individual’s disability. Representing an additional cost savings benefit is that the VA home loan funding fee is waived for disabled veterans. In qualifying for a VA home loan, an applicant can use their disability compensation to meet income standards.

For veterans, disabled or able-bodied, no better option exists in aiding in the attainment of home buying than the VA Home Loan. For more information, visit vahomeloancenters.org or the VA HLC Home Loan Information page.

Richmond man did not receive reasonable accommodate in eldercare housing

CentralMaine.com reports in "Richmond Eldercare home faulted by human rights panel" that the Maine Human Rights Commission voted in August that James Nichols of Biddeford was discriminated against when he was discharged from Richmond Eldercare Coalition housing instead of provided an accommodation to his disability.

According to the newspaper report, Nichols, who has PTSD and other disabilities and is a recovering alcoholic

was moved involuntarily to a different room at the home after living there a month, and the change triggered his post-traumatic stress disorder since the new roommate could drink alcohol and kept open containers of urine in the room. 

The report says Nichols told Gibbs the new living situation was “going badly” and he later told others he felt unsafe.

After a hospitalization, Nichols needed to be in a different room or with a different roommate. Other residents were not asked if they were willing to room with him. Instead, Nichols returned to the hospital for several weeks.

Maine Human Rights Commission Sides with Guide Dog Partner

The Portland Press Herald reported on February 25 that a Presque Isle diner accompanied by his guide dog was discriminated against at an Augusta restaurant. According to the article, "Ruling Backs Humiliated Blind Diner":

Bruce Archer . . . was seated apart from the rest of the diners . . . and "each time I went up to the buffet and everywhere I walked, there was a woman with a bucket on wheels following right behind me, mopping." . . .

Read more about the case and see a picture of Archer, along with his attorney and his Golden Retriever Seeing Eye dog, Flash, in the Portland Press Herald article.

Don't "Let It Snow." How Auto-Plays Can Disable Visitors to Your Website

Recently a friend of mine visited a blog she often visits. What she didn't know was that the blogger had added a fun, temporary new feature to her blog. When my friend visited the blog, it triggered a seizure.

There are many different kinds of seizures, and every person experiences them differently, but some common aspects of seizures include inability to think, exhaustion, loss of bodily control, memory loss (during or around the seizure), and severe headache. Regardless of the specifics, having an electrical storm in your brain is not fun.

The seizure trigger in my friend's case was WordPress's "Let It Snow" feature, which is a feature that causes little white dots to float continuously down the screen soon after someone opens the blog. There seem to be two reasons people have this feature on their blog:

• Some versions of WordPress (the ones you pay for), do this automatically in December. If a blog owner doesn't want their site to snow, they have to opt out. Some don't eve know what it is or why it's happening or how to turn it off. I think this is a terrible system, and it should be an opt in. Accessibility wonks at WordPress are working on changing this to an opt-out option.

• Some blog owners choose this feature because they find it fun and they assume their visitors will, too. They may find it festive and hope to spread some holiday cheer among their readers.

Notice that neither group includes people who are trying to harm or prevent access to people with disabilities. Nonetheless, people can unintentionally or unknowingly cause distress or make their sites inaccessible.

Google.com auto-plays snow and fog when you search for "let it snow."

Auto-Plays Interfere with Access for Many People

The problem is larger than snow. And it doesn't just affect people who are susceptible to seizures. Auto-plays -- any sound or movement that starts up automatically when someone opens an email or webpage -- can interfere with internet usage for many, many people.

Examples of auto-plays:

• A music player that starts up automatically when someone visits your business site or .ning personal page
• A video that starts playing when a visitor opens a news article
• Animated GIFs (short clips of moving pictures or drawings) that you include in your comment at an online magazine
• Graemlins or smileys that bounce, flash, or change facial expressions in emails or on bulletin boards

Examples of disabilities that are affected by auto-plays (not a comprehensive list:

• Blindness, low vision, or other visual issues
• Migraines and seizures (the first and fourth most common neurological disorders, respectively)
• Sensory processing issues and various of other neurological issues
• PTSD, panic attacks, and other conditions that cause a heightened startle responses

Recently, I tried to do some education on this topic in the comments section of a magazine where a video was on auto-play in an accompanying article. Some of the responses to my comment let me know that many people don't understand how and why auto-play  can be an issue for so many people. So, here are some details that I hope will answer lots of questions. (If I don't address your question, please comment!)

This is the video that started unexpectedly while I was reading a Jezebel article. Others commented on how startling it was.

Q: If someone has one of these problems, why don't they just leave the page or turn off the video or music when it starts up?

A: Sometimes this is an option for people and sometimes it isn't. In some cases, as soon as the computer screen flashes or the sounds start up, the computer user has a problem. My friend's seizure was triggered before she could exit the page. The same can be true for migraines; I have had migraines triggered by music playing, by the WordPress snow, and by other moving or flashing things. Once the migraine or seizure starts, you're stuck with it, regardless of what windows you close.

Some people (including me) may also experience sensory overload -- causing disorientation, trouble thinking, or even panic -- as soon as music comes on or a video plays or smileys bounce across the screen. This confusion and overwhelm can interfere with my ability to find the "off" button for the player or the tab to close the window or even the volume control for the computer. On more than one occasion -- and I've heard this from others, too -- I have had to hit my computer's power button just to escape the sensory overload because I couldn't figure out how else to make it stop. For people whose symptoms are severe when they unexpectedly encounter an auto-play, navigating the web can feel like a minefield.

Q: If the problems are so severe, couldn't you prevent them by keeping your sound shut off or avoiding sites where videos play and things like that?

A: Some people keep their sound shut off, but this isn't workable for everyone. I'll go into more detail about that in my answer to the next question.

Avoidance of problematic pages isn't always effective because you don't always know where you will run into these issues. For example, I subscribe to several blogs that I enjoy, and most of the time they present no access issues for me. However, every year, suddenly, some of them are snowing. I like to be able to read these blogs -- some of them are written by friends -- so I don't want to just stop subscribing to them. And it's also not a workable solution for me to not read any blogs from Thanksgiving through New Year's because I have a lousy sense of time and impaired memory. It is always a surprise to me when I open a blog that is normally fine and it suddenly starts snowing.

The other reason for not just avoiding sites that have these features (even if that was possible) is that, as is probably true for you (since you're online), the internet is very important to me. In my case, the internet is my primary source of information, friendship, entertainment, communication, and work, and losing access to this is difficult. In particular, I've found that certain illness-specific communities (such as chronic illness forums on .ning and many illness boards) are very heavy on the bouncing smileys and auto-play music. When my neurological symptoms were particularly bad and I couldn't tolerate unexpected sounds and movement, I stopped using them. Sadly, these were also my main sources of emotional support and medical tips for the very diseases that were causing these symptoms.

Relatedly, I like having my sound on for the same reason many people do: There are sounds my computer makes that I want to hear -- sounds which I have enabled, in some cases. For example, when a new email arrives, or I get a private message or a relay call, my computer goes "Bing!" so I know to check messages or email. I also like to intentionally watch videos or listen to radio programs that interest me. I could theoretically turn my volume off and on all day long every time I opened a new page or tab on the internet, but that would be a real energy drain and pain in the butt, and also, I do sometimes try to do that, and there is one substantial drawback: because one of my neurologic issues is impaired memory, I often forget that I've turned my volume off. Then I miss message notifications, can't understand why the volume isn't working on a video, etc.

And then there are people for whom, if they turned off the sound, their computer would be unusable: screen reader (or text reader) users,* which includes many legally blind and virtually all totally blind computer users. Screen readers use audio output** (a computer "voice") to tell the user what's displayed on the screen, including the content (such as an article) and the navigation (such as links, headers, applications, descriptions, etc.). If you're using a screen reader and suddenly music or a TV clip starts playing loudly at the same time, it interferes with your ability to read and can also make it difficult to navigate away from the page causing the interference! This is another example where "just turning off the music/video" is not a viable solution, because you might not be able to navigate to the "pause" button to turn it off.

While we're on the subject of visual disabilities -- just because someone is blind, it does not mean they won't be affected by visual auto-plays as well as sound auto-play. There are a lot of kinds of blindness, and not everyone who is blind is totally blind. For example, my friend whose seizure was triggered by the snow auto-play is blind and uses a screen reader, but she has enough vision for her brain to undergo an electrical storm when it registers the flashes and movements on the screen.

Q: But a lot of people really LIKE music, videos, bouncing and flashing things, "Let It Snow," etc.!

A: Yes, and I wouldn't want to deprive people of that enjoyment, either! That's why I think the best solution -- one that can work for everyone, I believe -- is to make such features contingent on the user activating them. In other words, if you have a visual art website and you think it will heighten visitors' enjoyment to hear music that accentuates certain aspects of the art, set up your music player so that they can hit "play" IF they want to hear the music. If your article is about a funny video, use one of the many video players that allow people to hit "play" when they want to see the video. I see no reason why WordPress can't add a widget that says, "Let it snow!" so that blog visitors who want "snow" while they read can activate the snow. Etcetera.

This is really, in my opinion, about consideration and consensuality. Just as websites with explicit sexual content have a warning screen or put "NSFW" ("not safe for work") in post titles, and posts detailing violent or dehumanizing events include a trigger warning, it is only reasonable and kind to allow all users, whether disabled or not, to choose whether or not to have music blare, graphics bounce, or people shout from a video screen.

Three Simple Steps You Can Take to Make the Web More Accessible

1. When you set up your blog, website, magazine, or personal page on a forum, don't use any auto-plays. If you want videos or music to play, great -- just make it optional. If you already have auto-plays set up, remove or alter them so that visitors to your site have choice. 
2. When you visit a website, blog, or forum that uses auto-plays, ask the people who own or run the website to remove or alter them so that video or audio features can be used consensually. I think it's most effective if you explain why they're a problem for you or others and give examples. I also think such requests go over better if you make an effort to be courteous. 
3. Share this post! Lots of people have no idea that auto-plays can be problematic for others, often including friends and loved ones. I am certain that many people would opt not to use them if they knew there were accessible alternatives.

http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/oh-my-snow/

 P.S. If you want to learn more about creating accessible sites, here's an article from Bitch magazine about five easy steps to increase access, and here's a more comprehensive article I wrote that includes reference to colors, flashing images, sound, etc.

 *Screen readers may also be used by people with print disabilities such as learning disabilities.
**Some screen reader users, which includes some Deafblind people, might use a Braille output instead of or alternating with an audio output.

Absentee Ballot Voting Encouraged in Maine

In any state in the US, registered voters whose disability prevents them from getting to their polling place can vote by mail (or in some cases, online) by absentee ballot. Other allowable reasons for voting absentee in most states include being away (on vacation, in the hospital, on a business trip) or being unable to vote due to work or religious commitments.

However, in Maine, anyone can vote absentee with a paper ballot, as long as they're registered by October 16 (this Tuesday) and request absentee ballots from their town clerks by November 1. (Note: This is a form that is printed out, which might not be ideal for some blind voters; voting by phone was voted in in 2006 but I cannot find information about whether that's still available. If you know, please comment!)

To vote absentee: Here is a listing of town clerks and their contact information. You can also get your absentee ballot online: here!

Disability rights advocates in Maine have long been working on making sure that people with disabilities have access to the polls, particularly that people with disabilities such as blindness or low vision, intellectual disability, or any other disability aren't prevented from voting in their community, with privacy and with the assurance that their vote will be counted.

However, for those of us whose disabilities keep us at home or who have disabilities that are not yet accommodated at public polling places (such as multiple chemical sensitivity) or who have unpredictable symptoms, absentee voting is a terrific way to make sure you're able to vote.

According to the Associated Press, both major political parties in Maine are encouraging anyone and everyone to vote absentee because there are no restrictions for who can vote absentee or why one chooses to vote absentee.

If you go to the polls in person, you can register to vote at the polls on the same day as you vote. It's all about options! Here's more info on Maine voter registration.

Want more information on voting by absentee ballot in Maine? Here's the official Maine Absentee Voting Guide!

P.S. Live outside of Maine and wanting voting information? Visit the Voting with a Disability page of resources by state, or the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) Disability Vote Project.