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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