An interesting article from The Washington Post Airlines tried to stop fake
service animals. It kept blind people off flights.
New Department of Transportation rules have made flying more difficult, and
at times, inaccessible to blind passengers
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By Amanda Morris
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/amanda-morris/?itid=ai_top_morrisa>
August 28, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. EDT
Elizabeth Schoen, 21, with her black Labrador service dog, Eva, at Gravelly
Point Park near Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Va., on Aug. 12.
(Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
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Elizabeth Schoen’s guide dog, Eva, is trained to help her navigate crowded,
chaotic environments such as airports. The black Labrador knows how to find
elevators, follow crowds to the baggage claim area and help Schoen, who is
blind, avoid obstacles.
But when Schoen, 21, of Arlington, Va., tried to fly to Boston to tour
graduate schools last March, airline staffers told her she could not take
Eva on the plane.
She is one of many blind people who say they have encountered more
difficulty taking service animals onto flights since new rules from the
Department of Transportation took effect in January 2021. The regulations
were an effort to crack down on a rise in passengers passing off untrained
pets as service or emotional support animals. Some travelers tried to take
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2018/01/30/a-woman-tried-to
-board-a-plane-with-her-emotional-support-peacock-united-wouldnt-let-it-fly/
?itid=lk_inline_manual_4> peacocks,
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/01/emotional-sup
port-pig-ejected-from-airplane-after-defecating/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4>
pigs,
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/10/20/daniel-the-emoti
onal-support-duck-takes-his-first-plane-ride-soars-in-popularity/?itid=lk_in
line_manual_4> ducks and even miniature
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2018/05/16/miniature-hor
ses-are-welcome-as-service-animals-but-monkeys-are-a-maybe-u-s-airline-regul
ators-say/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4> horses onboard aircraft. Some animals
defecated on the planes or attacked crew members, passengers and legitimate
service dogs.
The new rules state that emotional support animals are not considered
service animals and narrow the definition exclusively to properly trained
dogs. Airlines can require passengers to complete forms about their service
dog’s training at least 48 hours before their flight. Airlines also must
make a reasonable effort to allow all passengers with service dogs to fly,
even if they do not submit their forms in time.
Schoen with service dog Eva at Gravelly Point Park. (Craig Hudson for The
Washington Post)
But disability advocates say airlines seem to be interpreting the
regulations differently, enforcing varying rules for submitting documents or
rejecting forms from other airlines’ websites.
Some passengers say their dogs have been rejected for simple paperwork
mistakes. The required forms also have been difficult to fill out, blind
travelers say, because they are often not compatible with the screen reader
technology people use to convert text to speech.
In interviews, blind people told The Washington Post that the regulations
are so difficult to navigate that they are now hesitant to fly or are
anxious about the experience. Various organizations for the blind are
calling for the forms to be changed or eliminated.
Department of Transportation data shows that the number of
service-animal-related complaints from people with disabilities have more
than doubled since the new regulations took effect. In 2018, the agency
received 116 complaints. In 2022, the number was 451.
The agency acknowledged that people with disabilities are experiencing
problems flying with their service animals and said in an email that it is
taking their concerns seriously and “has begun looking further into those
issues.”
“It’s a gigantic mess,” said Albert Elia, a board member at the National
Association of Guide Dog Users and a staff attorney at the Civil Rights
Education and Enforcement Center, a nonprofit legal organization focused on
disability justice.
Eva guides Schoen along a trail at Gravelly Point Park. (Craig Hudson for
The Washington Post)
Denied at the airport
Schoen originally tried to submit her form online four days before her
JetBlue flight, but it was rejected by the airline. JetBlue’s customer
service advised her to bring the paperwork to the airport on the day of her
flight.
When she arrived, airline staffers told her she had not submitted the form
on time. Schoen tried to explain that JetBlue needed to make reasonable
efforts to get her and Eva on the flight but was told that the airline had
the right to turn her dog away.
“If you’re denying my dog, you’re denying me,” she said.
Schoen missed her flight and spent about $400 to fly the next day with a
different airline. She was later reimbursed for her original flight and
learned that the form had been rejected because she had used an incorrect
flight confirmation code.
The experience is one of many in which Schoen said she has had trouble
submitting her form and been treated with suspicion by airline staffers.
“It’s made me more scared. Every time I go to the airport, it’s like, ‘Are
they going to stop me?’” Schoen said. “Even if I know I’m approved, I still
feel this pressure, like I’m under a microscope.”
The airline did not respond to questions about Schoen’s experience, but
JetBlue spokesman Derek Dombrowski wrote in an email that timely submission
of the service dog form is necessary to determine whether a dog is qualified
to travel. He wrote that roughly 80 percent of applications are approved but
that “customers who do not submit in advance may not be able to travel.”
Inaccessible forms
A guide dog in training to lead a person through an airplane cabin at
Oakland International Airport in Oakland, Calif. (Paul Chinn/AP)
Filling out the forms requires blind users to have the most up-to-date
screen-reader technology, which can cost over $1,000, said Elia, the
attorney at the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center. In some
cases, forms are difficult to navigate because text boxes are not labeled
properly or cannot be clicked into. It took over 30 minutes for Elia to fill
out the form, and on some devices and browsers, he was not able to fill out
the form at all.
The forms have proved so cumbersome that travelers including Sherry Gomes,
65, of Patterson, Calif., now choose not to fly. Gomes used to teach
computer skills to other blind people and assist people encountering
screen-reader problems but grew frustrated trying to fill out the form
herself.
“It was a fairly simple form. But if I, who have a lot of experience using
this product, had trouble with it, then newer computer people and people
with less experience are going to have a lot more trouble with it,” she
said.
A Department of Transportation spokesperson said in an email that the
department consulted disability rights organizations on the forms and also
worked with accessibility testers. The department said it has begun
investigating potential problems and is open to feedback to make
improvements.
An emotional support peacock at Newark Liberty International Airport in New
Jersey in January 2018 as its owner tried to take it on a plane but was
denied boarding. (Jet Set TV/Reuters)
Not enough to stop fake service animals
For all the trouble the forms cause, they do not stop people from lying or
trying to pass off untrained pets as service animals, said Eric Lipp, the
executive director of Open Doors Organization, which reviews service-dog
forms for JetBlue, Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Air and Sun Country Airlines.
Share this articleNo subscription required to readShare
The
<https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2021-01/U.S.%20DOT%20Ser
vice%20Animal%20Air%20Transportation%20Form.pdf> forms ask owners to attest
that their dog has been properly trained to assist them with their
disability and to behave in public settings. Owners must also provide
veterinarian contact information and date of last vaccination, but are not
required to present other documentation. It can be hard to tell a legitimate
service dog from a fake one, Lipp said, and some service animals are trained
by individuals or owners rather than by organizations.
Michael Stein, the executive director of the Harvard Law School Project on
Disability, called the regulations “poorly designed” because they introduce
additional barriers for people with disabilities and ultimately leave
decisions up to the discretion of workers. He said there is no clear
rationale behind the forms, as they do not help airline staffers to
distinguish fake service dogs from legitimate ones.
“This seems to be bending over backward to create some kind of formal
requirement,” he said. “I don’t see the logic or the benefit.”
Under the
<https://www.ada.gov/resources/service-animals-2010-requirements/#:~:text=St
aff%20may%20ask%20two%20questions,dog%20been%20trained%20to%20perform.>
Americans With Disabilities Act, businesses are allowed to ask people if
their service dogs are required because of a disability and to explain what
tasks the dogs are trained to perform.
But it is still possible to fake having a service dog in person,
particularly when it comes to dogs assisting people with psychiatric
disorders or other invisible disabilities, Elia said. “How am I supposed to
know if a dog is trained to perceive seizures? How are you going to prove
it? Have a seizure on demand?”
And asking people to prove that they have disabilities may force them to
disclose sensitive health information, Elia added.
Some airlines have contacted service-dog training programs to verify
information on the required forms. But in early August, the Civil Rights
Education and Enforcement Center warned some airlines and dog-training
programs that this could be considered a violation of the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which protects the privacy of
health information.
Airlines for America, a trade group representing U.S. airlines, did not
respond to questions about these practices. Hannah Walden, a spokeswoman for
the association, wrote in an email that its members comply with the
Department of Transportation’s rules.
A guide dog leading its owner. (Jim Craigmyle/Getty Images)
A matter of safety
The Department of Transportation said the rules were created to ensure the
safety and health of passengers and aircrews. But the agency said it does
not have data on whether these rules have reduced incidents involving
untrained animals on flights.
JetBlue has seen a “significant reduction in disruptions from untrained
dogs,” but some problems continue, Dombrowski wrote in an email. JetBlue
says that on average it experiences an incident involving service dogs, such
as a dog biting customers or crew members, every three weeks.
Screening out fake service animals also can help protect the safety of
genuine ones, said Donald Overton Jr., executive director of the Blinded
Veterans Association.
His guide dog, a German Shepherd named Pierce, was trained for years at a
cost of thousands of dollars. After Pierce was attacked multiple times by
untrained pets on planes and in airports, the dog eventually became too
reactive and anxious to continue working as a service animal.
“In the blink of an eye, somebody who has just casually and carelessly
decided that their pet should be out there can take all of that and destroy
it,” he said.
Pushing for change
Organizations including the American Council of the Blind, Guide Dog Users
Inc., the National Federation of the Blind and the National Association of
Guide Dog Users have been meeting with Department of Transportation staffers
and pushing for the forms to be eliminated or changed.
“We don’t think airlines, with regard to guide dogs, should require a
separate process than what is required for everyone else,” said John G. Paré
Jr., the executive director for advocacy and policy at the National
Federation of the Blind.
But changing the rules could take time, because proposed regulations go
through a public comment period before decisions are made.
In the meantime, some of these organizations are supporting a
<https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1939/text#id1A568A
9169B34B95B4DA51E20B75CE9C> provision in the Senate Federal Aviation
Administration Reauthorization Act that would establish a pilot program for
people to register their service dogs. This would allow blind people to fly
repeatedly with guide dogs on the basis of a one-time approval process,
instead of needing to submit a form every time they fly.
The provision is one of many bipartisan efforts
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/05/disabilities-air-travel-
wheelchairs/?itid=lk_inline_manual_54> seeking to
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2023/06/09/faa-bill-house-air
lines-delays/?itid=lk_inline_manual_54> improve air travel for disabled
passengers as Congress prepares to reauthorize the Federal Aviation
Administration’s funding and programs before Sept. 30.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who is a double leg amputee as a result of
combat injuries sustained as a U.S. military pilot and who drafted the
provision, said the program would create a more streamlined process for
vetting service animals.
“Far too often, many continue to be flat-out denied or charged exorbitant
extra fees to sit in accessible seats or sit with a service companion during
commercial flights,” she said.
Jessica Beecham, 38, of Colorado Springs, is blind and said she regularly
faces questions from airline workers about her guide dog and has been
delayed at airports for up to four hours over issues with her form.
“It feels like a guessing game of whether or not you’re going to get
hassled,” Beecham said. “I would like to just fly in peace.”
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By Amanda Morris <https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/amanda-morris/>
Amanda Morris is a disability reporter for The Washington Post on its
Well+Being desk. Before joining The Post in 2022, she was the inaugural
disability reporting fellow for the New York Times.
<https://twitter.com/@amandamomorris> Twitter
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