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Featured image: Noah Secomb
The disability community is being called upon to provide feedback on a draft paper of National Principles for the regulation of Assistance Animals.
Assistance animals are used to support the independence and wellbeing of people with disability, acting as any other disability support. However, those who rely on assistance animals face various barriers in their daily lives, including businesses or transport refusing entry due to their service animals.
Powerd Media spoke with Diane Shaddock, an Access and Advocacy Advisor at Guide Dogs NSW/ACT, about the prevalence of assistance animal discrimination. She says instances like these are common occurrences for people who use assistance animals.
The main thing we hear about is taxi and ride share refusal. It's estimated about every one in two trips that an assistance animal handler books is refused, which is just too high.
Diane Shaddock
Ms Haddock explains that Guide Dogs NSW/ACT partnered with Domestic Animal Services and the ACT government to create a brochure outlining who they report to when filing a complaint and what they would expect in terms of an outcome.
They also produced what's called an Access Rights card, which lists the legislation that access refusals are enforced under the associated penalties and also has some links to the Access Canberra website.
“We were really successful with that campaign in that we had the first assistance animal refusal enforced and a fine issued to a taxi driver that we're aware of in the ACT,” Ms Haddock says.
Despite this, not all states and territories have assistance animal accreditation, and the ones that do have rules lack consistency.
To counter this issue, the Department of Social Services along with states, territories and other Government agencies, have developed a draft of National Principles for the regulation of Assistance Animals.
According to the DSS website, the draft Assistance Animal Principles would include nationally consistent accreditation requirements, a single national Public Access Test for assistance animals, national identity card, and consistent requirements for evidence of disability and a need for an assistance animal.
It would also include a clause for the wellbeing of the assistance animal, including during and after its working life.
Once the consultation period is over, the Department of Social Services says it will publish a report to address concerns from the public and detail how the community’s feedback was used.
Those interested in providing feedback can choose to respond to guided questions about the Assistance Animal Principles, or to make a written submission, or both.
If you would like to have your say, you can make a submission here.