For many years, traveling with a service dog was relatively easy. But today, we must go through an endless number of steps and procedures which were implemented to “help.” The intended outcome was never realized, and the situation is actually intolerable.
A few years ago, the U.S. Department of Transportation created new rules for individuals traveling with service animals. This policy was meant to get rid of problems caused by people traveling with untrained animals or people falsely claiming service or emotional support animals. Despite this higher bar, we are still seeing more untrained animals and fake service animals everywhere we want to travel.
The Real-World Impact of Misguided Policy
Besides being hard on the handler, this has also caused problems for legitimate service animals. At least twice in the past year, my dog has been threatened by another traveler’s dog. Once, I was standing at the counter handing in my paperwork to the agent when someone’s lap dog snapped at my dog. This other customer did not suffer any consequences from the poor behavior of her dog. As far as I could tell, she was not even asked to provide any documentation for her animal. Another time, while moving through the crowd control lineup strips, someone’s dog snarled at my dog and then relieved itself in the lineup area. This caused my dog a lot of stress, and he only proceeded through the line after a lot of encouragement. These types of incidents were what the rules were meant to prevent, but they are actually causing a lot more headaches for those of us legitimately traveling with service animals.
What is this bureaucratic procedure?
At its surface, the rule seems straightforward, but when you look closer, you will see where it begins to fail. It says that anyone traveling with a service animal must attest to the fact that the dog is properly trained, will behave appropriately, and will not relieve itself in the airport or on the airplane. Every airline has its own procedures to comply with these requirements. Some airlines have their own form that can be downloaded and completed offline. The handler must give a signed copy of this form to the airline every time they fly, and it is only valid for 30 days. I once was on a trip that lasted 32 days and did not have a newer copy of the form, which caused me no end of problems checking in for my return flight. I didn’t travel with a printer and wasn’t staying at a hotel, so I had no way to print a new form.
When I graduated with my most recent service animal, the certification my school provided accidentally had an incorrect spelling of my name. I discovered this fairly quickly, but I brought the wrong version of the form with me anyway. After all, one printed paper feels like all the rest. Once the form was printed, I had no way to know that I’d printed the wrong one. I was able to get someone to send me a corrected version via email that the airline accepted, but this almost made me miss my flight.
Once again, accessibility is missed
Airline forms often don’t work properly with a screen reader. This means I have to get a sighted person to confirm that I have properly completed the form before printing it. In addition, these forms have a lot of repetition, so even if you think you’ve completed the form, there may still be fields to fill out. For example, on one of these forms, I have to fill in my name three times and my dog’s vaccination dates twice. I have no idea why I have to repeat the information, as it’s only a one-page form.
And yet another privacy violation
Some airlines use a third-party agency to manage the compliance forms. However, they do not all use the same agency, and discovering which one to use can also be a problem. One of the airlines asks for one thing and another asks for others, so you have to research what is required each time you go on a trip. I also have given a lot of personal information to the agency, and I have no idea how they will protect it. The last time I used one of the third-party agencies, they rejected me because they incorrectly read the form I had completed. I received my training at Guide Dogs for the Blind in California and indicated so on my form. However, the agency reached out to the Guide Dog Foundation for verification, which of course didn’t work. I’m not sure how they made that mistake because I had also provided the right phone number. Luckily, I had filled this form out long enough in advance of my trip to correct the problem before getting rejected at the airport.
Over-Regulation can Lead to Unintended Consequences
These regulations, intended to solve one set of problems, have created new and frustrating hurdles for legitimate service dog teams. The current bureaucratic system is cumbersome, redundant, and often fails those it is meant to support. We need a simpler, more universally consistent, and accessible process. In the next posts, I will dive deeper into other specific issues.