lil_farfa

As a disabled person with a service dog, I find that the vast majority of people are completely uneducated on service dog laws in the US. Despite that, they dish out "advice" and "knowledge" that is completely inaccurate as if they are experts. This really does cause the service dog community people problems because businesses try to deny access, people act inappropriately towards our dogs, we are forced to fight for our rights. Honestly, I believe that is people were just properly educated, this problem would be greatly reduced.

Here are the most common misconceptions in the US:

1) Service Dogs must be certified/registered. Truth: there is no service dog certification/registration.

2) Service Dogs must be vested and/or have an ID card. Truth: No identification is required.

3) Service Dogs can only be of a certain breed/size. Truth: Any breed is capable of being a service dog.

4) You have to be blind/deaf to have a service dog. Truth: Anyone with a disability that the dog can mitigate

can have a service dog.

5) The dog doesn't have to do anything. Truth: The dog must be trained to mitigate the disability.

So, what would be the best, most affective way to educate the masses? I feel that this is important as the use of service dogs is increasing drastically in this country.

I have two forms of a rare neurological disorder, Dysautonomia. In addition, I also have permanent brain damage due to complications from being misdiagnosed. I was a teacher and had to go out on medical leave on November 24, 2009, and at my last appointment, my doctor said that it was highly unlikely that I will ever return to work.

I have disability insurance through American Fidelity and they are forcing me to apply for SSDI as it will reduce the amount that they have to pay me. I have no idea where to start. To make things more complicated, my treating physician also has Dysautonomia and is currently on a medical leave of absence. Very few doctors understand about this condition, if they have even heard of it. So, finding another physician is not reasonable. It took me 10 years to finally get a diagnosis and find my current doctor. Add to that, recent expensive medical trips to Mayo in Jacksonville has deleted all financial resources making no longer possible to travel.

I do have a service dog and have a ton of medical paperwork and documentation from when I went through the legal battle to get him approved to go to work with me. Will this be helpful? (I understand that the ADA definition of disabled and the SSDI definition are different. )

Basically, how do I do this? Where do I start?

I have a medical alert service dog for a neurological disability. I by no means appear to be disabled, but am. Recently, I have become increasing symptomatic, am no longer working or driving, so when I do leave the house, it is with the aide of a "service human" in addition to my service dog. Before the recent increase in difficulty, I found it easy to ignore stupid comments and educate when necessary, however, now I need to focus on doing what I need to get done. Ironically, I have also had more access challenges recently (now that I look like something may not be quite right) than I did before.

What would be the best way to deal with educating, stupid comments, and access challenges when feeling really bad and not able to "think on your feet"?

To clarify: By stupid comments, I mean, a father telling his son, "That dog's vest says 'Do Not Pet, I'm Working' but that lady's blind, so you can pet the dog, she won't know." or "Oh, it's a MEAN DOG, get away....get away!"

My service dog is 115 lbs.