ADA, fraudsters, accessibility, oh my!

[kristy2078]

I was having a long winded discussion on another website regarding accommodations (specifically in this case, therapy pets in a rental apartment). It's a long story and a few points from the other person got me thinking about something:

Approximately what percent of deaf people (and other groups of disabilities, too) would want more regulation from the ADA that cuts down on fraud and how much of that would believe that more regulation would benefit business owners and help them provide more customer service to people with disabilities?

This other person insists on believing that more regulation would hurt people with disabilities even more and do nothing to stop fraud. I had to remind her that relay scammers are the big reason businesses are hanging up on our relay calls. I doubt convenience has much to do with it.

 

[deafbajagal]

Example of a regulation...?

 

[kristy2078]

Example of a regulation...?

So far we have the regulations that state we are allowed accommodations. The ADA is pretty basic, though, but it can be confusing for business owners. At this point, there is no requirement anywhere that states people with service animals must have some proper documentation (i.e. tag, collar, vest, papers) when bringing their service animals to a place of business. I am sure you already know that nondisabled people are taking advantage of this and bringing their non-service pets to the business. An example of a new regulation would be to require people with service animals to put some service ID on their service animals. Believe this or not, you can find service animal collars, tags, vests, etc on eBay. There is no regulation that requires service animals to be actually trained and certified by professionals. What's stopping someone from picking up a dog at an animal shelter, buying a vest off of eBay, and then taking the dog to the store the next day? Nothing.

In regards to relay service abuse, a lot of relay service providers are requiring us to register so they know we are for real. When we want to have interpreters at a college, we have to meet with the disability support office to provide documentation. Places of entertainment don't have to require anything because it's obvious a deaf patron needs visual communication (but it's not always obvious whether a person who brings a dog into a store is disabled). People who need the blue parking placard or license plate have to be diagnosed and request their doctors to prescibe the placard/plate.