Oakland Press, Michigan Friday, February 24, 2006

Leader dogs may soon need a ticket to fly

By JERRY WOLFFE

A proposed change in  the Air Carrier Access Act might force disabled people 
to buy airline tickets for their guide and service animals when traveling by 
air in the United States  and overseas.

"The current policy is that you go on the plane with your  dog and the 
animal sits at the owner's feet," said Pat Paterno, manager of media 
relations at Leader Dogs for the Blind in Rochester Hills. "The Department 
of Transportation wants to permit airlines to charge for an extra seat or 
put the dogs in the cargo hold or have the disabled person and service 
animal wait for a less crowded flight."

Leader Dogs, founded in 1939, has had about 13,000  graduates. It pays for 
about 300 visually impaired and blind students each year  to visit the 
facility and be trained to use guide dogs, which cost about $38,000  each. 
Lions Clubs and private donors often cover the cost of providing a guide dog 
for a blind person.

"This is going to negatively affect thousands of  people," said Paterno.

Joan Froling of the International Association of  Assistance Dog Partners 
estimated there are about 25,000 Americans working with  assistance dogs.

The proposed changes in the Access Act were first made  Nov. 4, 2004, when 
the DOT published a Notice of Proposed Rule Making in the  Federal Register 
concerning air travel by passengers with disabilities. Already, rest rooms 
in airplanes are too small to be accessible to a wheelchair user, so doctors 
often tell disabled travelers to dehydrate themselves before flying.

"The stated goal was to clarify existing rules and make air travel more 
accessible for disabled Americans," IAADP said in a statement. "However, a 
segment of that document would have the opposite effect for a portion of the 
disabled American community."

Rod Haneline, chief operating officer of  Leader Dogs, noted, "The airlines 
talked about this before, and now apparently  the DOT has issued proposed 
rules to authorize airlines to charge a disabled  passenger for an extra 
ticket if the disabled person's service dog doesn't fit  into the small 
amount of floor space directly in front of where the disabled  person is 
sitting on an airplane."

The alternative being proposed,  Haneline said, is the team would be 
separated with the service dog going into  the cargo hold or both waiting 
for a later flight where there might be room for  the service animal and the 
disabled person to sit in the cabin.

"This is  not fair," he continued. "The dog is your choice of a mobility 
tool. You're  being discriminated against, in essence, because your choice 
of a mobility tool  doesn't fit perfectly into their seat."

Friends and members of the IAADP  have flooded the DOT Public Comment site 
with more than 1,150 responses critical  of the proposed rule changes.

"The issue is crucial to our freedom to  travel with a guide, hearing or 
service animal," Froling said. "We expect the  final rules to take effect 
this summer."

She said DOT first said it was  a safety issue and now the airlines say it's 
a financial burden because they  can't charge for a second seat.

If this rule goes into effect, Froling  said, "it will make travel 
unaffordable for many disabled Americans. It deprives  us of the access 
rights we've had for over 30 years and there has never been a  complaint 
from a passenger to DOT about assistance animals.


Oakland Press.



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