best4her

hello. this is my first time here so bear with me.

my daughter is Deaf. i am soooo proud of her. she is now a freshman at gallaudet. she's such a good daughter!!


well, we have rented an apt in silver spring, md for approx 14 months. when i applied for the apt, i informed resident mgr that i have a Deaf daughter and that we have a dog for her in case of emergencies. apt had 'no pet' policy even though several tenants had pets anyway.
resident mgr agreed to place Deaf child signs at parking lot entrances and she requested that i provide her with a letter from a dr. prescribing dog and with proof of her disability. i provided the info and she said ok.
now 14 months later she claims she never requested or got the paperwork i provided (i have copies of the documents i gave her) and that although she is giving me 'a break' by not having me pay back fees, she is demanding that i pay $260 fee and $20 month for our dog since there is a new pet policy in place along with a picture of dog and vet records of shots (i don't have a vet, i administer her shots myself). this seems unfair to us and i'd just like some feedback.
she wanted payment and other documentation by oct 21 or 'else'. what do you think about this?

Deafness

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VamPyroX

To my knowledge, the only thing you should really need is proof that the dog you have is a hearing dog and some kind of paper that certifies her to having the dog. As for the fees, I've never heard of that.

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rjr2006

hmmm....... if that dog is for your daughter's alert system since she is deaf then she has the right to have a hearing dog to warn her in certain emergencies.

Nesmuth

Contact these folks;

U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Civil Rights Division
Disability Rights Section - NYAV
Washington, D.C. 20530

Section Fax Number

(202) 307-1198

Chief

John L. Wodatch
(202) 307-0663

Deputy Chiefs

L. Irene Bowen
(202) 307-2245

Allison J. Nichol
(202) 514-8301

Renee Wohlenhaus
(202)514-5527

Jeanine Worden
(202) 514-5527

Special Legal Counsel

Philip L. Breen
(202) 616-7526

And tell them that both Gallaudet University and National Association of the Deaf seem to have lost their sphere of influence and needs help in dealing with harrassing incidents of the deafs with service animals.

javapride

RICHARD! SHES TALKING ABT THE DOGS NOT ABT THE POEPLE GAWD


u need to get off ur HIGH HORSE...


as for you ma'am is your dog certifed? if so thats all u need to show the proof of certification tot he manager if that manager won't conform to the issue, then file a civl suit against her for discrimination based on disablity... ( my apologise for shouting at him, NAD is not the issue but they can back u up for disablity rights based on the dog's needs and ADA will also show u have resonable accomdation and lastely Galludet university has no libablity reason why you need to contact them cuz u and your daughter live off campus. so thier not the issue. the issue is your dog and ur rights as a mother/daughter to continue keeping the dogs at that aparment and not pay for the deposit as it falls under reasonable accomidations. I wish you luck.

Nesmuth

If the pet is considered a service, therapy, or assistance animal, a pet fee/deposit cannot be charged. It's Illegal. And it's shame that our 2 big monuments has no sphere of influence.

Richard

best4her

nesmuth:

i too am frustrated with the 'wheels that turn the machine' so i thank you for response. since i posted, i have received great advise and researching the service animal issue has opened my eyes to more information.
i was fearful that since we trained our dog ourselves, there would a problem but i've since learned that the dog is still covered so i am feeling a bit more confident about the situation. i also found that i am not obligated to provide them with any more than basically information pertaining to identify the dog.
as soon as i feel completely confident, i will arrange to provide a shot record and pic of the dog and wait to see what happens next. i did forward some infrom ada to them for review so i hope they read it and understand that i am only interested in the safety and well being of my daughter and not out to cause trouble for them legally.
thank you again and if you come up with anything more, please let me know.

best4her

thank you. you are very helpful and i do so appreciate your response. i would like to ask you about the certification part of it though. i read somewhere that how or where the dog was trained is irrelevant. my impression was it is illegal for them to require proof of training as an individual has the right to train the dog themselve to their own specification.
please reply back to me because the last thing i'd want is to piss them off AND be wrong. i hope you'll reply back.

best4her

that's exactly what i thought. i am researching this matter further and praying they will back of because i am so stressed over this.
we both thank you for replying!!!

Nesmuth

If certification is an issue, you need a third party to review the pertaining documents test the animal and issue a certification. And as for where the dog was trained there's no rule on that so you training the dog yourself could be as good as a professional trainer.

You may want to contact an attorney Dr. Richard Rosen if you have the means to hire him to fix the problem real quickly for your daughter. He can be reached at rosenlaw@att.net and good luck.

Richard

best4her

nesmuth, you are great! i have spoken with someone at nad and i feel this issue will be resolved in our favor.

CODAchild

I just wish sometimes that people would be more educated involving the needs for the deaf. First and most importantly, your daughter's dog is not a pet, but, a working service dog. There are deaf services training school for dogs that are trainable. The hearing service dog also wears a vest to identify them as a hearing service dog who is working to keep their deaf master safe.
I am happy that you received some very useful information and help from other AD'ers to help in your daughter's problem.
Good luck!

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best4her

i feel so much support right now. NAD assisted me to the fullest and i am so greatful. we've won this fight but the war is still on for so many others. it is indeed a shame that so many disabled are treated unfairly due to meanness and ignorance. thank you for your support.

pek1

Richard,



No where in the ADA does it require a service animal to be "certified." To have a third party "review." To that I say to you to stick it...no one asked any of us if we wanted hearing aids, so a third party has NOTHING to say.

You really need to read the ADA, as I've been seeing a lot of erroneous information regarding "certification" of service animals. IT'S NOT REQUIRED, SO WHY INSIST ON IT???????????????????????

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pek1

Another thing, Richard...regarding "certification" and having a third party "review" the animal: People like you are going to be changing the ADA to require it and, at what cost? You're being more of a hinderance than a help, not to mention a troll. I will allow no one to touch my dog becausae it is not required under the ADA ...no more of that! Get it right, get it now...go to the DOJ website and read it for yourself. Go read the ADA and memorize it. Does it say anything about "certification" or "reviewing" a service animal? The law speaks for itself, not as a pimp service who thinks they can help the deaf/hoh with their service animals.

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Above Him there is no other . . . John 14:6.

Nesmuth

Many legal entities including the HUD require certification of service animals.

HUD has no problems with us providing the third party certification. Our certificates are good even to the US Immigration department too. Remember who we're dealing with, uneducated hicks brought into the system by the Bush Administration. And they'll be around for a long long time so we have to be there to help the disabled with service animals.

There's a lot of hicks out there that would rather see a third party certification of service animals than be yelled at about the ADA. And this therefore is a product of ignorance in the Bush Administration and something we can exploit on our own and that's something other deaf and disability organizations need to be doing to address their fundraising needs.

Take a peek at http://www.deafadvocacy.com/certdogs.htm

If you dont like it this way, that's too bad because there's a lot of hicks in HUD who sigmantize the ADA. This way we've prevented dozens of people from losing their homes because of service animals.

Richard

bethkobrl

You guys also have to be aware of state and local laws as sometimes they have addtional laws that protect service animals and their handlers. In California people with low income can qualify for $50 a month from the state to help off set the cost of caring for a service dog. Also many states are passing laws that make it illegal to have a dog that harms a service animal. Many people with service animals were being attact by lose dogs, so now in many states their are very heavy fines for the ower if thier dog attacts a service animal. Another issue is the wording in some of the state laws isn't enculsive to all service animals.

Nesmuth

California has the strictest law on harrassing service animals. Bug a service animal and you get 6 months prison time.

And as for the troll pek1 who decided to jump into the scene, I have this;

Do you think clients would wait for the Dept of Justice to yell at the apartment managers? It takes an average of 9 months before the DOJ gets involved and in the 9 months a client will lose their home if they decide to wait.

Showing an ADA book or brochure to an apartment manager dont easily scare them into complying any more. That I speak from plenty of experience.

Third party certification does 2 things;

1) Tells the manager the animal is properly certified and has all the proper documentions together in one place for easy review.

2) Also means the animal's owner is making a strong guestre he/she is ready to litigate if the apartment manager remains ignorant of the service animal's rights.

We have been there for these clients dozens of times and we will continue to be there for them as long as HUD and apartment managers remains ignorant.

Richard