American disabilities act
The world health organization categorizes disability as any restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the manner considered normal for a human being as a result of a loss of psychological, physiological or, the anatomical structure of a person (Oliver, 2017). Disabled people require special conditions in their daily lives. A social model is established to ensure that they have no hindrance to the choices they decide to pursue in their lives. The government is responsible for giving the best condition through law and policy formulation. This paper discusses the American disability act.
Historically, society tends to isolate people with disabilities. Discrimination happens in all aspects of social life like in employment, housing, education, transportation, recreation, access to voting, health service, public service, and public accommodation. The treatment of disabled people was a social problem that in 1990, the Americans with disability act was passed. The purpose of this act was to ensure that people with disabilities got the same civil rights protection as everyone else. The act is divided into five sections.
Title I: Employment.
This part of the act ensures that people living with disability get access to the same job opportunities and remuneration that people without disabilities get. Therefore, employers must modify the work environment to accommodate the disabled. Facilities like a ramp and special washrooms should be availed. Employers with more than fifteen employees are required to comply with Title I, provide medical examination and define direct threat when there is a risk of harm to the disabled.
Title II: Public service
This part sought to make sure that qualified individuals with disabilities are not discriminated against in all programs and service by public bodies. The state and local government departments are expected to comply. Provision of public transport is also addressed here. It expounds on section 504 of the rehabilitation act of 1973 to cover providers whether they receive federal funding or not. Detailed standards of transport are established like making necessary architectural changes for the comfort of disabled people and developing effective communication for people with hearing, vision and speech impairment. Title II enforced and regulated by the department of justice.
Title III: public accommodations and services provided by public entities
Public accommodations include hotels, restaurants, daycare centers, private schools and so on. This part prohibited privately owned public places from discriminating against the disabled. Therefore, these institutions are required to make the necessary structural changes for easier access and comfortable stay by disabled people. They are also expected to take the steps needed to facilitate effective communication with the visually, hearing and speech impaired.
Title IV: telecommunication
This part mainly targeted speech and hearing impairment. It required telephone and internet companies to provide an effective interstate and intrastate service that allowed people with speech and hearing impairment to communicate effectively. This title also captioned public service announcement. This part is controlled by the federal communication commission.
Title V: miscellaneous provisions.
This part covers a different number of areas. First, it directs that in relation to other laws, the Americans with disability act should not bring down the quality if the other law provides better protection to the disabled. Secondly, it states this law does not seek to restrict insurance providers from administering benefits subject to regulation by the state law. Third, it states that nothing in this chapter shall be construed to require an individual with a disability to accept accommodation, aid, opportunity, or service that the individual does not wish to receive. It also directs that a person cannot complain that they were subject to discrimination because they were not disabled. It further gives addresses drugs and substance abuse and direction on attorney’s fees. Finally, it provides a list of contentious conditions that are not considered to be disabilities.
The American with disabilities act was a big step in removing isolation and discrimination of disabled people. Considering that it became illegal, the treatment of disabled people got better since people and businesses don’t like to get sued. Accommodation provision in schools significantly improved for students who had been documented as disabled as directed by ADA.
People with disabilities however still face a lot of challenges. Even though everybody is expected to treat disabled people fairly, most people do not have adequate training required. A few percentages of the population know sign language making communication with the speech and hearing impaired. The transition from high school has also been a challenge since less attention is given to the small details in their lives.
In conclusion, marginalization of any kind in the world should be removed from this world. The Americans with disability act have helped a lot in assisting in the inclusion of disabled people. What is remaining is for people to change the social norm of ignoring or stigmatizing disabled people and contribute in offering assistance of any kind to them.
Policy analysis on service dogs
People living with disability require special equipment like crutches, wheelchairs earing-aid and orthopedic shoes. They require a different path to manoeuvre obstacles like ramps. However, what they need most is assistance from human beings and service dogs. Service dogs are specially trained to help people perform tasks such as picking up a fallen object, pulling a wheelchair, opening doors, pressing elevator buttons, guiding movement, reminding a person to take medication and alerting handler of sudden sounds. This paper discusses policies on service dogs.
The policies on service dogs are defined under Title II and Title III of the Americans with disabilities act. According to this law, emotional support, comfort animals, and therapy dogs are not considered to be service dogs. Other species of animals whether domestic or wild animals can never be categorized as a service animal. There can be no instance where another animal is considered to be a service animal even if a doctor has recommended it.
According to the Americans with disabilities act, the following categories of dogs are considered to be service dogs. A seeing animal is specially trained to guide partially or fully blind people. A hearing dog has been trained to alert a hearing-impaired person of sounds like a knock on the door or notifications by appliances. A sensory signal dog is trained to help people with autism; it alerts the handler if they have repetitive movements associated with autism; like shaking hands making them stop.
A seizure response dog is trained to serve a person with seizures like epilepsy. The action of the dog depends on the needs of the handler and its training. A dog may stand guard over the seizing person or go for help. Very well trained dogs can predict a seizure in advance to warn the handler to take preventive mechanism like lying down.
A psychiatric service dog is probably the most famous dog. This is due to the fact that they work with army veterans. They are trained to detect psychiatric episodes of a person and help reduce the effects. They may prevent self-hurting by a person with dissociative identity disorders and keep disoriented individuals from danger. They are also trained to perform tasks as reminding the handler to take medicine and turning on the lights; this is mainly for post-traumatic stress disorder patients such as army veterans.
It is the responsibility of the handler to supervise and take care of the service dog. A dog may behave unacceptably like barking uncontrollably, moving around disruptively or posing a danger to other people. Although business and other institutions are required to allow entry of service dogs into their premises, they are allowed to refuse entry if the dog is uncontrolled. The owner can control the dog using a leash or through voice control. The handlers are also required to vaccinate the animals in accordance with the laws and to clean up after the animal.
Handlers of service dogs also have rights in regards to dealing with other people. Title II and Title III of the Americans with disabilities act states that service dogs are in public service facilities. They are not considered as pets; therefore even if the establishment has no pets policy; they are mandated to allow entry. The questions a person running a business can ask the handler is limited. They cannot ask the person the nature of the disability and its extent. Business owners cannot also ask for documents that show that the dog is a service animal and is adequately trained and vaccinated and they cannot charge the handler any more than any other customer for entry. Local laws that prohibit certain breeds do not apply to service dogs.
The laws clearly state that people with disabilities should be given the same employment opportunities, allowed access to accommodation in hotel or rentals, allowed to travel like everybody else and access to education. Employers, therefore, should allow service animals to accompany though entry can be denied if the dog poses an undue hardship to co-workers. Employers are allowed to ask for documentation of the animal.
In terms of housing, the landlord and homeowner may not ask about the nature of the disability and should allow service dogs entry. The Americans with disability act permit the use of service dogs in school by a student. They are therefore entitled to accompany them to classes. A person with a disability cannot be denied access to transportation. They have a right to bring their service animal along. When it comes to air travel, the air carriers act requires airlines to allow access to service and emotional support animals. However, those travelling with emotional support animals are required to provide documentation.
In conclusion, service animals are a massive help to disabled people. Therefore, the government should consider facilitating the training of the dogs. This will ensure that more disabled people get access to the help they need. There is also the issue of small horses can be allowed as service animals as they can provide more support in terms of mobility due to their strength.