Home, Community or Travel: Rules for Service Animals are not the same
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
PETER BERG
Founded by the Department of Health and Human Services national institute on disability, independent living, and rehabilitation research and IDILRR. Welcome to today's session. Which is home community or travel, rules for service animals are not the same. My name is Peter Berg. I am with the Great Lakes ADA center. I am serving as the moderator for today's session as well as one of the presenters. Joining me today we are very pleased to have with us Amanda Motyka who is with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and she is an equal opportunity specialist out of the Chicago office. From the U.S. Department of Transportation we have Livaughn Chapman, junior, he is a chief within the aviation civil compliance branch office of general counsel and we also have Anne Hammond who is the transportation industry consultant with the U.S. Department of Transportation. As a reminder today's session is being recorded. The audio archive will be available within 24 hours at the www.ada-audio.org website. And an edited transcript will be available within 7 business days at that site. So at this time we are going to go ahead and get started. And what we plan to do today is touch bases on the various federal laws and the differences between the definitions under these laws of service animal’s assistance animals where these laws apply and what the rights and responsibilities are for covered entities as well as persons with disabilities with regards to this. I will begin by providing a quick over view of Americans with Disabilities Act and service animal requirements under the ADA and also briefly mention Section 504 and individuals with education IDEA Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. After I am done with my brief presentation I will turn it over to Amanda who will provide us with an overview of the Fair Housing Act and how the FHA applies to assistance animals and residents with disabilities and then we will turn it over to Livaughn and Anne for an overview of the air carriers access act. At the end we hope to give time for good questions for all of the speakers at the end of the presentation.
All right. So I am on to slide No. 11 for those of you following along at home. So the Department of Justice regulations Title II applied to state and local governments and Title III applied to places of public accommodations and you can find the requirements for service animals in Title II, 35.131 and in the Title III regulations 36.302. All right. I am on to slide No. 12 overview of definition of service animal under the ADA, most folks are familiar with this now. The definition in both the Title II, Title III regulations can be found in section 104, the definition section. And as many of you are aware that under the ADA the definition limits species of service animals to dogs only. There is an exception for miniature horses, miniature horses are not service animals but an exception to the service animal requirement. The DOJ regulations made clear that comfort or emotional support animals are not service animals as defined under the ADA, however, the definition under Title II and Title III of the ADA does not impact how emotional support companion -- comfort animals are viewed under the Fair Housing Act or under the Air Carrier Access Act. So slide 13 let's take a look at the definition of service animals under Title II, Title III. Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to perform work or task for someone with a disability and some examples, guiding someone that is blind, alerting someone that is deaf, providing notifications to someone that seizure may be on coming, assisting someone using a mobility device and picking up items, opening up doors, can alert someone remind someone to take medications. Can assist someone with post-traumatic stress disorder when a -- something has triggered an episode. Service animals are working animals. They are not pets and the work or tasks that the animal has been trained to do that the dog is trained to do relates to the persons -- the person's disability. I want to take a quick moment here to explain how the Justice Department, how the ADA regulations make a distinction between a trained psychiatric service animal and an emotional support or comfort animal. In the justice department section by section analysis to the regulations they have what I call R and R. Which is recognition and response. So if you think of it in terms of a trained psychiatric service animal is going to recognize that something is happening with the person with a disability. They recognize that something has triggered an episode has caused some sort of issue for the person with a disability. And then the trained service animal responds, that second R. So whatever the animal has been trained, the work, the task that the animal has been trained whether it is to get the individual away from whatever the stimuli that has triggered the episode or nuzzle the individual whatever the case may be. And that's the big distinction with regards to the ADA regulations. Obviously comfort emotional support animals are very beneficial for persons with disabilities, however, in ADA contexts the presence of the comfort or emotional support animal that is providing some type of benefit for the person with a disability. There is no recognition, no response. It is the actual presence of the animal.
Now let's go on to slide 14 and we will look at the general service animal requirements under the Title II and Title III regulations. So Justice Department when updated the regulations back in 2010. They took some long standing policies that they use in enforcement of service animal requirements and actually put that in to the regulatory language which is beneficial for persons with disabilities as well as those having to -- having obligations to comply, state and local governments, you know businesses, what does it require to do. The limitations of what they are required to do. So the regulatory language includes information of when a service animal can properly be excluded. It requires that the service animal be under the handler's control or under the control of the person with disability. Talks about the responsibility for care and supervision of the animal. Provides guidance on the two questions that can be asked under the ADA. Specifies where a person with a disability may be accompanied by their service animal. And then it talks about the prohibition of surcharges. On to slide 15, so in general the general rule is that service animals are to be allowed. That a person with a disability should be allowed to be accompanied by their service animal wherever the general public is allowed to go within a private business or within a state or local government facility. All right. I have been told I need to slow down. Talking too fast. So the general rule is that, you know, service animal must be allowed. There are two specific instances where service animals can be properly excluded. And the first is when the service animal is out of control. And the handler or the person with a disability does not take adequate steps to get the animal under control. Now that does not mean a service animal barking once is out of control. A service animal that may be, you know, stepped on, bumped into, or startled, you know, by another patron within the facility. That’s not considered to be out of control. And then the second instance where the service animal can be properly excluded where the dog and animal is not -- is not house broken. In the event that a service animal is -- is excluded, the covered entity still must allow the individual with a disability to participate without the service animal being present.
Slide No. 16, under the handler's control the language in the regulations require that a person with a disability the handler have the service dog on a harness leash or tether and where the use of harness leash or tether is not possible because of the person's disability or where that would interfere with the work or task that the animal is performing, then the service animal in that instance must be under the control through voice commands, or other types of signals. Slide 17 the permissible questions again under the ADA, two questions and two questions only. One is that a service animal necessary because of a disability, if the answer to that question is yes, then the follow-up question that can be asked is what work or task has the animal been trained to do for the person. A covered entity cannot require any type of documentation, proof of training, proof of certification, covered entity cannot get in to any questions about the nature of the person's disability. Limited, you know, to these two questions. Slide 18 some miscellaneous provisions for service animals. Businesses state and local government is not responsible for care, supervision, cleaning feeding of the animal. That's the responsibility of the person with a disability or handler. Service animals may accompany a person with a disability in any area the general public is allowed to go. Also keep in mind and remember if a person with a disability that has the right to be accompanied by the service animal under the ADA service animals don't have rights. It is the person with a disability that has the right to be accompanied by the service animal. And that businesses state and local governments hotels, for instance, can't place a deposit on a person with a disability that is going to be staying in the hotel with a service animal. Or rental car agency can't place an additional deposit on an individual that uses a service animal that is going to be renting a vehicle. The regulations specifically prohibit that. If that would be viewed as a surcharge, where a business or government entity regularly charges for any damage done by residents, patrons they can certainly, you know, charge a person with a disability, you know, if there is damage that has been done. But in general cannot place that any type of pet deposit goes on a person with a disability.
All right. The exception, slide 19, and then on to slide 20, the exception to allow miniature horses, of course, when the DOJ regulations took effect back in March of 2011, there was a lot of talk especially, you know, media coverage on miniature horses and, you know, this presentation that businesses and facilities are going to be overrun by miniature horses and that's not been the case but it does allow for individuals who for whatever reason cannot use a dog in an ADA covered facility. May benefit from using a miniature horse. I know that when the Justice Department was considering revising the definition of service animals back in 2008 I had received an inquiry from an individual regarding a miniature horse that she was having trained to serve as her guide and the reason was for religious reasons she could not use a dog as a service animal. There is instances where someone may require the use of a miniature horse. And what the Justice Department regulations require is under the -- the general nondiscrimination requirement the obligation for covered entities to modify policy practices and procedures A covered business or state and local government must modify policies and allow a person with a disability to be accompanied by a miniature horse. The regulations include assessment factors that a business or state or local government can use in making a determination as to whether or not it would be reasonable to modify their policies to allow a miniature horse. Slide 21, assessment factors that can be used to determine whether or not, you know, miniature horse can be used safely within a facility. Looking at the size, the height, the weight of the miniature horse, that the person with a disability handler has sufficient control of the miniature horse to be used safely within a particular setting, within a particular venue. That the miniature horse like a service dog, the miniature horse must be house broken and whether the horse is present within a particular setting would pose a legitimate safety concern. All right. On to our -- on to our next slide, slide 22, the same general provisions apply so that where a miniature horse is properly excluded it determined it can't be brought within a facility, a person with a disability should still be allowed to participate within the program or access services. Care and supervision, responsibility of the person with a disability inquiries are the same. Allowed to access all public areas where it is reasonable to allow the miniature horse and may not place any surcharges on a person with a disability that is using a miniature horse. We are going to transition into employment. Employers covered by the ADA have obligations to provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities where it is necessary to provide someone an equal opportunity to access the application process, application portion of the employment process. To allow an employee to be able to perform essential job functions or when it is necessary to allow an equal opportunity to access benefits associated with the jobs.
The -- there is no definition, you know, of a service animal under the employment provisions of the ADA. So it is not limited to the definition found in Title II and Title III of the ADA. Next slide, slide 24, at any point when an employee with a disability makes a request for a reasonable accommodation an employer may require enough documentation to establish that an employee has a disability and two to get information about the functional limit actions of the employee's disability. What can the employee do, what can't the employee do related to the disability for which they are requesting the accommodation. The employer would have the right to get documentation from the employee as to how the service animal, how the emotional support, companion animal will assist the employee in performing essential job functions or benefit with the employment. Slide 25, the FTA, department of the transportation issued a notice that there is no change to the definition of a service animal under the Department of Transportation regulations. So what the Justice Department did in updating its definition of disability does not impact the definition under the Department of Transportation regulations that apply to both the public transit agencies as well as private transit agencies. As with any federal agency if the Department of Transportation were going to make any changes to its existing regulations they would go through the regulatory process that would include a public comment period that would allow persons to submit comments on that. So if you look just real quickly 526 this is definition under the Department of Transportation regulations and it was the same definition previously found under Title II and Title III of the ADA. All right. Two more quick slides and turn it over to Amanda. Service animals at places of education, when you have individuals with disabilities education act it is primary law that applies in K through 12 settings but you also have application of Title II of the ADA and so sometimes the use of the service animal can be included in the IEP but it is not absolutely necessary. There is actually a Department of Justice settlement agreement from 2014 and that was agreement between the Justice Department and a school district in New Jersey where a parent was making the request to of the school district the school to allow her son to be accompanied by the service animal under Title II of the ADA. So it doesn't have to necessarily be included, you know, in the individual -- in the IEP school's public schools have an obligation under Title II as well.
For post-secondary settings we are talking about the application of ADA in Section 504. So a person student with a disability may require the use of a service animal in order to access programs activities and services of the educational entity. And then when it comes to dormitory or housing that's provided by an educational institution, we are also talking about the application of the FHA and Amanda is going to talk about that briefly. For educational entities, limited to the two questions that any other entity subject to the ADA, so is it a service animal because of a disability. If so what work or task has the animal been trained to perform. A post-secondary institution cannot require a student with a disability that is using a service animal to register with their disability services office. They are limited to those two questions. And then finally just want to talk about that educational entities may create voluntary registries where someone with a disability can voluntarily register the service animal and get some type of identification. So that the person with a disability is not getting stopped each time they enter a different building in the state of Michigan they passed legislation last year that statewide it took effect this year. So persons in the state of Michigan can register their service animals again it is a voluntary program. It is free of charge but they can register their service animal with the state and they are issued identification to facilitate access in to businesses and state or local government entities. But again that has to be voluntary and the fact that someone does not have that -- has not participated in the voluntary registration cannot be used as a means to exclude a person with a disability wanting to be accompanied by the service animal. They would still have to allow the person with a disability. All right. At this point I am going to turn it over to Amanda and let her talk about the Fair Housing Act.
AMANDA MOTYKA
Peter, thanks so much. My name is Amanda Motyka. As Peter was telling you, I do work at HUD, and department of fair housing and equal opportunity. Prior to coming to HUD I did serve as a disability director at a large public Housing Authority for about ten years. So I do have some experience with granting accommodations firsthand. So on slide 30 Peter went over this information already but I just want to make clear that we are all on the same page, that we are talking about persons with disabilities and we are looking at assistance animals from a context of reasonable accommodation. We are not talking about folks who are nondisabled and their pets. Strictly assistance animals or people with disabilities. On page 31, the Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful to refuse to make reasonable accommodations to rules, policies or practices or services when such accommodations may be necessary to afford persons with disabilities an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. So there are a million and one examples of reasonable accommodations and assistance animals are one of the largest requests that Housing Authority and other housing providers get and I am sure everyone would be surprised to know how many complaints FHA receives about service animals. It is one of the top complaints that we get. On slide 32 two types of assistance animals. There is the service animals that Peter went in to talking under the ADA which are going to be service animals that have a certification, and that's under the ADA. Service animals also can just be assisting a person with a physical disability. We are talking about persons with impaired vision, impaired vision. Someone using a wheelchair. Seizure alert dogs, things like this. Emotional support animals, again you are going to see these more with people with mental disabilities. Someone who has depression, someone who has anxiety or perhaps post-traumatic stress disorder.
So on 33, there are three statutes that we are concerned with when we are talking about housing and public accommodations and then the first one is the hair Fair Housing Act which is the oldest of these three. Section 504 of the Rehab Act which is called Section 504 and then of course the Americans with Disabilities Act. And on slide 34 we have kind of my favorite assistance animal which Peter also talked about, the miniature horse. And it was kind of one of my dreams in public housing to get to approve a miniature horse as a service animal but I never had that opportunity. So on slide 35, there is more examples of what an emotional support animal could look like. A cat, several birds, as you -- and an Iguana. 36 the Fair Housing Act and Section 504, of course, their definition of what assistance animal looks like going to look different from what the ADA looks like. So assistance animal is going to provide support, assistance or service and it does include emotional support or therapy animals. It is not only a dog like the picture before. We can have a cat, a bird, miniature horse, rabbit, monkeys, here we don't want poisonous spiders or crocodiles or tigers or anything like that to apply. If it is within reason we have actually -- there has been some instances of nonpoisonous spiders, people like what they like. Animal is not required to be trained or certified and this is another thing that hangs people up. There is no breed, size restrictions on these animals and we will get in to that a little bit more later. On slide 37, the terms assistance animal and service animal are not used interchangeably and that's for what a lot of the reasons that Peter talked about in the opening. What is clear is that we are not going to refer to assistance animal or service animal as a pet. So pet policies, things that we would apply to a pet are not the same as what assistance animal and service animals are subjected to. So again assistance animals are not considered pets under the law. So if I didn’t say it clearly enough, on slide 38 just kind of a graphic, saying although no pets are allowed, service dogs are welcome. On slide 39, this talks a little bit about who is eligible to have an assistance animal. Again not to belabor it. It is an individual with a disability. And an individual who has a person residing with them that has a disability. This last one, I want to draw a little attention to as well, because we do see a lot of cases coming in where a person who visits a resident has a disability and they are told to leave because they have an assistance animal and that’s unlawful. So a person who visits a resident who has a disability can bring their service animal as well. So on slide 40 and 41 I won't get too specific into what the definition of disability is. I am pretty sure we are all working off kind of same background. So just quickly, an individual with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of their major life activities. An individual regarded or perceived as having such an impairment or somebody with a record of that impairment. And then on 41 talking about what are the definitions of major life activity. Of course we have some of our big ones, like vision, hearing, walking, but in 2009 the ADA was amended to include a lot more major life activities. We see a lot more people who previous to the update weren't considered disabled that are now considered people with disabilities.
On slide 42, specific to the Fair Housing Act, the Fair Housing Act is going to cover virtually any type of housing. It includes privately owned housing, federally assisted housing with a few limited exceptions and we won't get too into those because they are very limited. Requirements apply regardless of the presence of federal financial assistance. It may be much easier for, you know, HUD to go in and look at a public Housing Authority or a multi-family housing, it is regardless of the federal financial assistance. So again remember privately owned housing is also covered. Fair housing prohibits housing providers from discriminating against applicants because of their disability or anyone associated with them with a disability. Page 43 more Fair Housing Act information and includes provisions for reasonable accommodation and modifications. Makes it unlawful to refuse to make accommodations and rules policies or practices. Prohibits housing providers from refusing residency to persons with disabilities. Or as in some of the instances with assistance animals placing conditions on the residency because they are people with disabilities. On slide 44, again there is a miniature horse, my favorite. Housing providers may have assistance animal rules as long as they are no more restrictive than any pet rules at the same property. So a lot of landlords will put a lot more rules in place, you know, than -- for a person with a disability than for somebody with, you know, a pet. And that in of itself is a violation of the Fair Housing Act. So can't just make things up to make it harder for a person with a disability to get an animal in because that is against the law. Now as with any other accommodation or modification request the disability and animal request must be reasonable and the resident is responsible for their animal. A question should come up about somebody who is visually impaired not being able to pick up after their animal and the more we looked in to it, that would be accommodation that housing provider can make for that person. Is, you know, to assist in that process as well. On slide 45 we are talking a little bit about Section 504 and this is specific to housing providers that receive federal financial assistance from HUD. They have must permit qualified individuals with disabilities to participate in and benefit from housing aid benefit or services. And recipients must administer programs using criteria and methods which equal participation of individuals with disabilities. So the big one again is on slide 46, is the ADA which came out with its regulations about how to apply assistance, assistive animals. So it requires an individual to have a disability. As do all the other regulations. But like Peter was saying in the beginning the animal has to meet service animal definitions. Again it is always going to require the reasonable accommodation criteria. Again it is not for people who are not disabled. We are talking about people with disabilities strictly. Title II of the ADA applies to housing, operated by state and local governments and similar to 504. Because it includes some public housing agencies state or local government provided housing, and big one state universities and other places of education. There were recently some Midwest universities who settled because they had refused to allow somebody with a service animal in to the dorm but after HUD found them at fault they did amend their policies to include assistive animals. Title III of the ADA applies to places that serve the general public. A big one here is going to be shelters, homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, things like that.
On slide 47 just going over what Peter had said the definition of service animal contained in ADA regulations is not going to limit housing providers obligations to grant accommodations under FHA or Section 504. So a lot of times even though the ADA regulations had come out, if you are a public housing agency or you are somebody who is covered under 504 you are going to look to 504 for what your definitions are. They actually -- you have to consider all of them instead of just looking at the ADA regulations. So you are going to allow emotional support animals and things like that in your building. You are not just going to defer to the ADA regulations. So a little bit more about that on slide 48 is joint statement that Department of Justice and HUD issued in 2004. It provided assistance regarding the rights and obligations of persons with disabilities and housing providers under the act as well as provide additional information regarding housing providers obligations to provide accommodations. There is bunch of real world scenarios in there. If you have a situation you are encountering now I can't stress strongly enough that you should look at and have that joint statement on hand as a reference. DOJ also published a fact sheet on service animals and the ADA which is useful to housing providers as well. So last thing on the FHA -- on slide 49, FHA actually issued a notice as well in 2013 and kind of hashed out what the reasonable accommodation obligations are under the three different laws that we talked about. So if you have further questions about that what applies where, things like that, I would look to the FHEO notice for those answers. Just Google it and it should be one of the first things that pops up.
PETER BERG
Amanda, just as an FYI we did include that as supplementary material.
AMANDA MOTYKA
Okay great. This is going to be a great piece of assistance if anybody has any questions what applies where. On slide 50, rules, policies, or practices, must be modified. Must be modified to permit the use of assistance animal as accommodation in housing when its use is necessary to afford a person with a disability an equal opportunity or allow a qualified individual to participate in, benefit from, I mean activity receiving HUD assistance. So just again not to say it enough, no pet policies, these do not apply. They can't be the answer for somebody asking for accommodation for assistance animal. The pet policy will not apply in these situations. I have some real case scenarios starting on slide 51. A question we get all the time, is there a maximum number of animals that somebody can ask for. So on page -- I keep wanting to say page, on slide 52 we have Ms. Anita Moore versus the village of Constantine. Ms. Moore is a person with a disability and we know this. For whatever reason we also know the nature of the disability and that it is very severe which we would not ask about by the way. But she has a condition which will progressively strip her of her ability to move leaving her immobile. And she also has depression due to the prognosis. She needs to use her limbs as often as possible and may help alleviate some of the progression of her disease.
So as a result Ms. Moore decides to maintain over a hundred rabbits in a backyard of her house. These are real cases I just want you to know. On slide 53, we have the village becoming aware of the rabbits and since, you know, they see there is a hundred of them they send her a notice that she’s in violation of a zoning ordinance which precluded her from having more than two animals. Ms. Moore provides the village with her doctor's note indicating that the reason she has these rabbits is because of an accommodation. We are looking at this on page 54, this village was a HUD funded grantee. If they are receiving community block grants something like this what would we do. On slide 55 we are going to analyze how the village should handle this. We know that she is maintaining a hundred rabbits in her backyard and neighbor is complaining about it and then obviously as we said the village sent out the local ordinance violation. So what changes if she said she is a person with a disability. On slide 56, what everyone should do when someone is requesting for accommodation engage in the interactive process. So the village says why do you need a hundred rabbits and Ms. Moore provides a doctor's notice. The big part about the interactive process is the village may not say sure go ahead and have a hundred rabbits. But they are going to ask about alternatives, can you have 75 rabbits, can you have 60 rabbits and that's exactly what the village did. While Ms. Moore says that she would love to keep all 100 rabbits she settled on keeping ten. So that is an adequate reasonable accommodation request. On slide 57, if the village calls us about her concerns what will we tell the village and really with what the village did they did a pretty good job about, you know, talking to Ms. Moore about what she needs, considering the reasonable accommodation request and making an exemption to their ordinance to allow Ms. Moore to have more than the two animals and then on page 58, just so no one is worried all ended well in Constantine.
On slide 59, as we said and everyone should know this already, the pet policy, does it apply to all or does it. So again this is another true story and on slide 60, we have Mary, versus Tallgrass condominium. So Mary's daughter Jessica is a person with disability and Jessica has anxiety. She has been Ms. Hilmes has been in her condo for ten years and has two pets by herself. Jessica comes in with her emotional support dog and moves in in 2012. The association has its two pet maximum policy outlined in their pet policy. The association is informed that the three dogs are living in the unit and so they write a warning telling Ms. Hilmes that she will have to remove one of the animals. So on slide 61, Ms. Hilmes writes to the association and says that her daughter needs her emotional support animal. There after she maintains all three dogs and prompting the association to issue a violation and assessment of $50 for every day she remains in violation. On slide 62 we are going to go through how the condominium should have looked at the case. So of course Ms. Hilmes indicates that her daughter is a person with a disability and requires an emotional support dog. The association does ask for -- the association should engage in interactive process using the accommodation policy rather than the pet policy. So again as we did just saw in the rabbit case, bunny case you can ask for a doctor's note. You can ask those two questions that Peter said in the beginning and ask about alternatives if there is reason they couldn't allow for the third animal. So she provides a note from her doctor which states benefit for maintaining the dog and condo association grants the accommodation for the dog. On slide 63 the big hang up in this particular situation was the note from the doctor doesn't say that she needed the dog. It said that the daughter would benefit from having the dog. So there is different ways they could have gone about this. It could have asked Ms. Hilmes to get another note just changing out the word need. More often than not, if you are applying really stringent things to a person with a disability it may look to FHEO and other local fair housing agencies that is discriminatory. They may want to overlook the fact that it said benefit and reading in to what the accommodation is stating. That the person would benefit from the dog and it would alleviate some of the disability. So on slide 64 the executive director of the condo administration calls and says, you know, what should we do. What did we -- what did we look at. So although this isn't interactive. Obviously our recommendation after everything would be on slide 65 and we would say the pet policy does not apply. So Ms. Hilmes daughter can have that third animal because that is not a pet. That is an assistive animal.
And I think this next one will be the last real life case I have but on slide 66, there is a huge reoccurrence of Housing Authorities and other housing providers that restrict assistive animals according to their breeds. And, of course, it is always going to be the pit bull that gets the worst rap. German Shepherds, rot whaler’s, dogs such as this. And a lot of times with the dogs that people are asking for these are some of the smarter animals they can ask for. By their breed they are more intelligent than some of the other animals that they could choose. On slide 67 this is an actual case that took place in New York where someone asked for a companion animal. Ms. Gonzalez, she had several mental disabilities and she wanted her companion animal to be a pit bull. So the association she went up against and said nope we have breeds that are restricted in our pet policy and one of them is going to be the pit bull. The association issues Ms. Gonzalez a notice that she is violating the restricted breed policy and she has to remove the pit bull. On slide 68 she is asking to keep her animal and the association keeps denying her request pointing out that pit bulls are on the restricted breed list. On slide 69, unlike anything that we have seen in these last two cases, the association what they decide to do they go out and they interview Ms. Gonzalez's psychologist and they threatened that if she did not allow them to interview the psychologist they were going to evict here. After that they required her to purchase insurance if she wanted to keep that companion animal and name the association as the coinsured. It also required her animals to wear a vest at all times outside of her units and that she sign an indemnification agreement holding the association harmless if the animal were to do anything. On slide 70 we see that Ms. Gonzalez does everything that the association asks her to do. And what they reward her with is a notice of nonrenewal of her lease that following November. So she does all these things that they ask her to do and she still is forced to move out of her apartment because of the pit bull. So on page 71, what are we looking at when we are looking at this case? Well, that the association kept falling back on its pet policy which now hopefully after I have drilled on for a bunch of time with you guys you know that the pet policy is not be all, end all. We are making accommodations to that pet policy. The association breed restriction is contained within that pet policy. There is no weight or breed restriction on assistance animals or even in this case she has an emotional support animal. There is no restrictions there either. So the association should never have demanded an interview with the psychiatrist. Again, you are only asking a couple of questions, is there a disability and is this animal necessary to accommodate the disability. 72, slide 72 there is a few more questions. The insurance policy that they had required they never required anybody else with any other type of dog to obtain that insurance. The association's requirement to make her animal wear a vest every time it went in and out and the association’s refusal to renew Ms. Gonzalez lease effectively evicting her after she did all these things. So all these things lead up to slide 73, where FHEO did charge this case. This is kind of a clear-cut example of things that are violations of Civil Rights laws. So they did charge the case and I don't think Ms. Gonzalez moved back in. I am not sure. But she -- this is unlawful and something that we are hoping to see less and less of as people get more educated on what assistance and emotional support animals are. So I think that's the end of my presentation, Peter.
PETER BERG
Alright, thank you very much Amanda. And now I am going to turn it over to Livaughn and Anne for their portion of the presentation on air carrier's access act and you will have plenty of time to cover your part.
LIVAUGHN CHAPMAN
Alright sounds great, thank you very much. My name is Livaughn Chapman and I am chief of the Aviation Civil Rights Compliance branch here at the department of transportation and I am responsible for overseeing the enforcement of the Air Carrier Access Act and the regulations that implement that piece of legislation as well as I am also responsible for providing legal support to the aviation consumer protection division and my colleague is here with me and we’ll give her a moment to introduce herself.
ANNE HAMMOND
Sure, and I am Anne Hammond. I am the team leader for disability issues in the aviation consumer protection division side of the office and I am responsible, I oversee -- we have about 13 analysts who handle disability related complaints that the department receives as well as providing guidance to airlines and consumers regarding the Air Carrier Access Act and its regulations.
LIVAUGHN CHAPMAN
So what we are going to do we are going to jointly present the information today. So Anne and I will sort of tag team this presentation as best as we possibly can. What slide 75 shows what we intend really to talk about. We want to talk a slight bit more about our office just so you know who we are. A little bit about the history and overview of the Air Carrier Access Act. Some of the top complaints that we receive and we’ll talk about service animals and some things that we are contemplating doing in the rule making area and provide some information regarding resources and guidance that we have available. We sort of covered the office structure, but a lot of folks just quite frankly have never heard of the office of aviation enforcement and proceedings. We are housed within the office of the secretary of transportations office of general counsel here at the Department of Transportation. We are unique in the general counsel's office that we are both a legal office and a program office. The office is split in to two divisions. The legal side and the aviation consumer protection side which is comprised of primarily transportation industry analysts that interact with the public on a daily basis and are responsible for conducting investigations and handling the numerous complaints that we receive. The legal side of the office provides legal support aviation consumer rights protection division as well as takes enforcement action where appropriate against carriers for violations of Air Carrier Access Act and 14 CFR part 382 which is the implementing regulation. So just a little bit about jurisdiction, I am on slide 77, folks sometimes get us confused with the FAA and not as much anymore folks had confused us a bit with the TSA. But the jurisdictional lines of those three agencies TSA is responsible for security. FAA deals with issues related to safety. And also airport accessibility, which is distinct from the Air Carrier Access Act which is what our office is responsible for enforcing which deals with air transportation.
But the three primary areas of responsibility in the office are consumer protection, Civil Rights and economic licensing. The Air Carrier Access Act and I want to get in to a little bit more of the history on the next slide, but this is slide 78, the Air Carrier Access Act broadly prohibits discrimination against air travelers with disabilities and provides other things that the office of the secretary is supposed to do. Which is one of the things we do, spend a lot of time on -- Anne will touch on this later, we investigate each complaint receiving allegation -- that contains an allegation of discrimination on the basis of disability. We are charged with the responsibility of doing that by Congress through the Air Carrier Access Act. We also published a report on an annual basis to Congress on complaint data, carriers are required at the end of January, the last Monday in January to provide us with a count of all the disability related complaints that they received and they have to categorize them in accordance with a grid that is actually incorporated within the rule part 382. We also are in the process of updating a technical assistance manual that the department is required to have under the Air Carrier Access Act.
So Air Carrier Access Act, I have said that numerous times. A lot of folks have never heard of the Air Carrier Access Act we have been discovering or get it confused with the ADA. The Air Carrier Access Act actually came with enacted four years before the ADA, in 1986 after a court case in the Supreme Court between the Department of Transportation and the paralyzed veterans of America in which the court ruled that airlines were not covered by Section 504 of the Rehab Act. Because they don't directly receive federal funds. So they would no legislative provisions that apply to airlines that prohibited discrimination on the basis of a disability. So Congress promptly enacted the Air Carrier Access Act but as you saw on that last slide it was very short on words. But it did direct the department to promulgate a regulation to implement the act. And through a negotiated rule making process in 1990 the same year as the ADA came out, the rule implementing the Air Carrier Access Act was promulgated. The Air Carrier Access Act as originally enacted only covered domestic air carriers. So in April of 2000 Congress extended by legislation the coverage of the Air Carrier Access Act to foreign air carriers and I will skip down to the bottom, May 2008 there was a major revision to 14 CFR part 382 that officially included foreign air carriers within the coverage of part 382. So again who is covered? For U.S. carriers it applies to all of their operations and all of their aircraft with exceptions that are specifically spelled out in part 382. But for foreign air carriers it only applies to foreign air carriers with respect flights that begin or end at a U.S. airport or for aircraft that are used on those flights.
ANNE HAMMOND
As I mentioned in the beginning as the team leader for the aviation consumer protection side we are the office that receives all the airline complaints that comes to the Department of Transportation and this chart is something that we track typically for our top five complaints each year because there are a number of other types of disability related complaints but they are at a much smaller percentage. So I wanted to share this chart with you and this is on page 81 where we are at as far as the service animal types of complaints. And these are cases too, where we have not -- these are basically captured based on the complaints by the consumers what they are alleging happened. We do go through a process with the attorneys in investigating the carriers and to each of the cases that we receive and so it basically -- so this chart is reflecting the complaints that we have received. It does not indicate whether or not we actually found a violation of the Air Carrier Access Act. So what's important to note as Livaughn mentioned earlier is we do not require the airlines in January of each year to submit their complaint totals. When it comes to disability complaints what they receive is considerably higher than what we do. Total last year we were at 940 complaints. I think they submit on average around 18 to 20,000 complaints each year that the airlines receive directly. But one of the most significant parts of this chart really is we are looking at trends. So not just the numbers. And as you can see in the category just looking at the service animal problems, we have been giving an increase of complaints. The main three areas that most of the complaints we receive regarding service animals one is the seating where animals are seated or placed on board with the person on the aircraft. There is -- the other piece is potentially being denied their service animal or being charged for bringing their service animal and the other is questions that they receive regarding the creditability of the service animal.
Okay. And going on to page 82, the Air Carrier Access Act service animal definition really it has come out of a couple of guidance documents. And the original in 1996 was where other narrowly defined as any guide dog signal dog or other animal individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability. And we will note that at the time in this narrow definition that the department did consider emotional support animals as service animals under the ACAA. Then in 2003 we did add to the definition animals that assist a person with disabilities by providing emotional support. And as we note here the -- it is that broader definition of animal. With regards to on page 83, traveling with a service animal. So carriers must permit a service animal to accompany a passenger with a disability on the flight and the service animal must be allowed to sit at the same place as the passenger. What we have said and we actually work with FAA and there is service animal placement guidance regarding the animal must be able to sit like at the feet or the seat in or foot space in front of the passenger with a disability. But they cannot obstruct an aisle. And it is a very small service animal, like no larger than the size of a two-year-old child they are allowed to sit in the passenger's lap at all stages of the flight. So the carrier, must accept I.D. cards other written documentation, presence of harness or credible verbal assurance of passengers and the difference here for emotional support or psychiatric service animals the carrier may require medical documentation. Before I go on to the next slide, talking about what can be required on medical documentation I will note for foreign carriers the requirement only requires carriers flying foreign flights in and out of the U.S. be service dogs only.
So the documentation for emotional support or psychiatric service animals, while the department – one thing to distinguish here is the department actually does not require documentation but we do allow carriers to require documentation and we have put in the information on what carriers are allowed to require on the documentation first of all, stating that the passenger has a mental or emotional disability recognized in the current DSM. The passenger needs the animal for accommodation on the flight or at the destination. That's a question that comes up oftentimes they may not need it for the flight but may need the assistance at the destination. The individual providing the assessment is a licensed mental health professional – health care professional and the passenger is under his or her medical care. And then the date and type of the professional's license and jurisdiction which it was issued. And finally to note on this that the document should be issued less than one year from the date of the passenger's initial scheduled flight.
LIVAUGHN CHAPMAN
One other additional point that I would note with respect to emotional support animals, is that carriers can require up to 48 hours’ notice that an individual intends to or bring an emotional support or psychiatric support animal on a flight in order to verify this documentation. Service animals is certainly the subject of this -- the primary subject of this presentation, and certainly I think a topic that garners a lot of interest from a variety of groups. Both Amanda and Peter talked about miniature horses as service animals. And there was not too long ago a great deal of buzz and discussion about whether a service animal -- whether a miniature horse could be carried on board an aircraft. And in fact, a number of carriers had contacted our office and we had discussions with carriers about miniature horses. And it was determined that there were certain miniature horses that were of a certain size and trained properly that were indeed service animals that could be flown on board an aircraft. I think the next biggest area of concern that our office probably saw was potbellied pigs, individuals looking to transport pigs on board aircraft. There were numerous media reports out there with headlines titling when pigs fly and the like and under the Air Carrier Access Act if the service animal does meet the specific criteria a potbellied pig could be considered a service animal or an emotional support animal which is within the definition of a service animal under the Air Carrier Access Act. We have seen circumstances in which an individual wanted to bring a potbellied pig on board but the animal was too large and sort of go through those types of or the analysis that an airline should go through in determining whether or not to carry a given unusual service animal on board. Recently as well we have heard, we have seen the news reports of the emotional support turkey and while the department has not made any official positions with respect to an emotional support turkey, if the animal fits the criteria of an emotional support animal that can be safely carried on board the aircraft I think the department's position or at least the enforcement office's position would be emotional support turkey could be a service animal under part 382 and carriage would be required on board the aircraft. With respect to unusual service animals airlines are not required to accommodate certain unusual service animals. For instance, snakes and other reptiles or ferrets or rodents or spiders as service animals in the cabin and also any factor precluding the service animal from traveling in the cabin. So if the animal is too large or too heavy as I mentioned, to be accommodated in the cabin. Or if the animal would pose a direct threat to the health or safety of others on board the aircraft or if the animal would cause a significant disruption in cabin service, for example, if it is not trained to behave appropriately in a public setting or if the animal is prohibited from entering a foreign country, that is the flight's destination, however it would be incumbent upon the airline that the animal meets one of those factors but it would be incumbent upon the airline to show that the animal was too large or too heavy or it posed a direct threat before denying that animal carriage in the passenger cabin on the flight.
So it should be noted that the department is very committed to ensuring that our air transportation system is accessible for everyone. And it is important to us that people with disabilities including those who require service animals when traveling are accommodated. We understand that many people with disabilities use a service animal in order to fully participate in everyday life. At the same time however we also want to make sure that there aren't abuses in the system. We have -- along with the reports of the unusual service animals that we have seen and received we have received many reports by both members of the disability community as well as anecdotal reports from some airlines of abuses that may be occurring out there in the system. The emotional support animal criteria that exists currently within the rule that was on slide 84 that Anne covered was targeted towards trying to minimize the instances of an individual falsely claiming that a pet is a service animal. We are at this time exploring also the feasibility of a negotiated rulemaking to deal with some of these service animal issues. We have -- we continue to receive these reports. We have seen those reports of individuals who may be able to easily get documentation online. And the issue of unusual service animals continuously comes up as well. One of the things that the department is looking to do is to explore the feasibility of a negotiated rule making dealing with the definition of a service animal. Whether or not it should be changed under the air carrier access act to mirror the ADA definition or any other changes that should be made instead. To explore what are the safeguards other than the documentation requirements in part 382 that an airline may impose on an individual to ensure that an individual is not falsely claiming that their pet is a service animal. In order to get away from having to pay pet fees to an airline. So it is one of the major things that the department is contemplating at this time.
ANNE HAMMOND
Finally we just wanted to provide our information. We have a lot of great information on our website. So this page 8 -- slide 87 you will see our information to get to our website and on the left column there is a place to click on disability. So this includes a lot of helpful information regarding the part 382, implementing regulation. We have FAQs regarding specific questions that we get asked oftentimes, there is other information as well just to passengers with disabilities and travel and what generally the -- some of the requirements are. And I think on the last slide, 88, yeah, so there is just further information and the final thing I want to highlight is we also do offer a disability hotline that is manned from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday Eastern standard time. So this is a live number that our office responds to calls. It was set up originally for really real time issues especially for people traveling at the airport running in to situations or problems real time. We get questions on that too, from sometimes if people calling after they have had a bad experience or they just want to know some information regarding the regulations or what their rights or responsibilities are. We are happy to share that number with you.
LIVAUGHN CHAPMAN
That will conclude our presentation portion.
PETER BERG
Thank you very much Livaughn and Anne and Amanda for all that great information. John could you rejoin us and give the participants on the telephone the instructions again on how they can ask a question.
Operator
Yes, of course. So ladies and gentlemen at this time if you have a question or comment you can press the star followed by the 1 key on the touch tone telephone and that will place you in to a question queue. Press star 1 for any questions.
PETER BERG
For those of you in the webinar room you can continue to submit your questions in the chat area. While we are waiting for questions, we have already received quite a few. The first one is for Livaughn and Anne and the participant wants to know is it air lined required to provide bulk head if that is requested by a passenger with a disability that is traveling with a service animal.
LIVAUGHN CHAPMAN
Yes, thank you for that question. Part 382 specifically spells out the categories of individuals that an airline must provide a bulk head seat to. And for either an individual who is traveling with a service animal, or an individual that has a fuse or mobilized leg an airline is required to provide a bulk head seat. However one of the challenges that is associated with that is an individual is only entitled to a seat that is within the class of service that they purchased. The current definitions of class of service include such things as economy plus or whatever it is that airlines do provide. One of the challenges that individuals sometimes face is that if they have purchased a regular economy seat, they wouldn't be entitled under the current rules to a bulk head seat if it is in a different class of service such as economy plus.
PETER BERG
Excellent, thank you. Amanda has a question for you regarding documentation and this questioner wants to know in housing is there a standard for medical or other documentation verifying the need for an assistance animal when the need is not overtly obvious. Must the doctor describe how the animal mitigates the disability or say what breed is needed or can the doctor simply say the tenant needs the emotional support of the assistance animal?
AMANDA MOTYKA
So, one thing is it is best to have a policy in place if -- a reasonable accommodation policy in place if you are a housing provider. People don't have to use your forms or anything that you have established necessarily. But it just helps you along to have everything so that you can use uniformly. I think Peter what you had said and it applies here, there is only two things that a housing provider can ask, if the physician a knowledgeable professional, can attest to the person being disabled and know the second question wouldn't be what breed or how the animal is going to help but if the animal is necessary. It is just kind of bare bones on what you can ask under the law and it is just establishing that the person is a person with a disability and there is need for the assistance animal.
PETER BERG
Amanda, is it correct that the documentation does not even need to disclose the specific disability, only that the individual meets the definition?
AMANDA MOTYKA
Absolutely. And a lot of times you will see the third party who will overshare and tell you all sorts of different things about the person and their disabilities. And you should never keep those things in files. In fact, once you get the information you receive just that the person is disabled and they need that animal I would actually just advise you to shred or get rid of any of the information that has too much about that person on it.
PETER BERG
Okay. Two questions along the same lines, first I am going to go to you Amanda and Livaughn before we check the phones both relating to fees. So under this one for you Amanda. So under FHA deposit cannot be required for a resident that has an emotional support animal.
AMANDA MOTYKA
Right.
PETER BERG
Very good.
AMANDA MOTYKA
Yes. That's right.
PETER BERG
Short and sweet. Livaughn and Anne, under the air carrier access act. The questioner wants to know, are airlines prohibited from charging a fee to a passenger that is traveling with a service animal or emotional support animal?
LIVAUGHN CHAPMAN
Yes, they are prohibited from assessing a fee. That's one of the reasons that folks are suspecting that there may be individuals who are looking to pass off pets as emotional support animals because air lines do charge a fee and it can be rather expensive depending on airline to transport a pet. However if the animal is not -- if the animal is considered a service animal, then by the regulations airlines would be precluded from charging a fee.
PETER BERG
Very good. John do we have any questions on the telephone at this time?
Operator
Yes, a couple of questions. We’ll take our first question from -- your line is open.
PETER BERG
Go ahead with your question, caller. Is your phone muted? We are not able to hear you.
CALLER
Let me see what's wrong.
PETER BERG
We can hear you.
CALLER
Okay thank you very much. When ADA talks about the service animal and one of the -- it has to be trained and has to be under the person's control at all times. I heard from FHA that the animal doesn't have to be trained because it especially for an emotional support animal there is not a lot of training to do. But I didn't hear anything about that from air carriers access. So I would like to hear from the two of you Amanda and Livaughn about training and being under control of the person at all times please.
PETER BERG
Thanks for the question.
AMANDA MOTYKA
Okay. So in situations where only the ADA is going to apply, like we had talked about shelters and other places where public accommodation those are going to be places that are, you know, the animal is going to have to be certified and going to have to be under the control and things like that. And not to say that in a public housing situation or something like that where the animal can be out of control, it is just saying that the -- there is different regulations under FHA and section 504 they can be emotional support animals and then also don't -- do not have to be trained to do a particular task. So I don't know how that applies to obviously I will let you guys answer. Hopefully that -- does that answer your question?
PETER BERG
Yep and Livaughn.
LIVAUGHN CHAPMAN
Sure. With respect to the Air Carrier Access Act, it acknowledges the fact that the service animals in general are trained to perform a certain function for the service animal user. With regard to specific training requirements the Air Carrier Access Act doesn't state specifically what an animal must be trained to do. It does require that the animal be trained to behave appropriately in public. That's one of the factors that airline must assess in determining whether or not a given service animal can safely travel on board a flight.
CALLER
Thank you. Yes, thank you.
PETER BERG
All right. Excellent. Let me do one more question before we get to John. This questioner wanted to know does the Section 504 requirement under the Rehabilitation Act require all recipients of federal funds to allow assistance animals IE state and local governments in non-housing facilities and when Amanda talked about application of HUD Section 504 regulations she was talking specifically about housing and where they have, you know, jurisdiction. The receipt of federal funds from other federal agencies is not going to obligate those entities to allow assistance animals. They are going to be subject if it’s a state or local government and non-housing, nonresidential setting subject to ADA definition of a service animal and for a Title III entity that may receive federal dollars that is not coming from, you know, HUD. Again they are going to be subject to the Title III definition of a service animal. I got a question here for good one for you, Livaughn and Anne. Do the airlines have to provide any reporting on the resolution or how they handled complaints received or do they only need to provide the total number of complaints that they receive?
ANNE HAMMOND
Yeah. So -- the kind of two-fold. As far as the complaints that they have to report to us by the first -- for the last Monday of January annually, they do not -- they just need to -- they do not need to provide us how they actually concluded the complaint. Just that they received them. However there is a couple of factors we taken -- when we are actually investigating complaints that our office has received then we do require information for the specific complaints that we receive and investigate that they give us, you know, all their details. And we can always go back to them to find out what exactly happened, even, you know, as much as we need. But when we are looking at the complaints that they report to us in January, they are -- they are subject to the fact that the department in cases where we are seeing trends or have concerns about complaints rising in a specific area, for example, that we can actually ask them to provide us their specific complaints and they are required for any complaint that they receive internally, not just ones that were sent to the department that they have to keep thorough records, what they actually did. Of what -- how the complaint was handled and so all of those internal records they are required to keep available for the department to request up to three years.
LIVAUGHN CHAPMAN
I just wanted to underscore that we do ask the airlines to provide us whenever we receive a complaint directly from a member of the public we are required to investigate that complaint and as part of that investigation we do ask airlines to provide us with copies of their response and their resolution that they provided to the individual. We also ask for other information that may be relevant to a given investigation.
PETER BERG
Excellent. John do we have another question on the telephone at this time?
CALLER
Yes, I have another question from caller. Caller your line is open.
CALLER
Hi. Just curious how do allergies fit in with like air lines and offices. Say the person has a dog allergy and another person has a guide dog how does one trump the other or how do you rule on something like that?
PETER BERG
Just really quick in terms of ADA context, so if it is an employment setting and you have an employee with a disability that uses a service animal the employer has an obligation to provide a reasonable accommodation. If there is another employee who has an allergy that substantially limits major life activity or major bodily function such as respiration and it meets the definition of disability, the employer would clearly have an obligation to provide a reasonable accommodation for that employee as well. So perhaps putting them in different parts of the office, providing some type of air filtration system. Same would be true under Title III or Title II in a classroom setting and educational post-secondary setting where you may have a student with a using a service animal and you may have another student that is impacted by the presence of an animal. Both the employer and educational institution would have obligations to accommodate both individuals if they are both individuals with disability. So I will go ahead and let Anne and Livaughn address it from the Air Carriers Access perspective.
LIVAUGHN CHAPMAN
Sure, Peter. I think you touched upon some points that kind of cross the line there. I think the first question is whether or not this individual's allergies actually rise to the level of a disability. Do they substantially limit the major life activity of an individual? As a practical matter, that doesn't generally, that analysis generally doesn’t come in to play on the practical aircraft setting. What our guidance to industry has been on this very question that comes in quite a bit, the Middle Eastern carriers particularly don't like the rule that requires them to carry dogs. Is generally what our guidance leads to separate the two individual as much as possible on the aircraft. Generally an individual would need to be in very close proximity to the animal in order to be affected by that animal and generally if the individual with the allergy is seated separately from the animal that usually solves the problem. As a practical matter we would, you know, we would probably look to, you know, access to air transportation. If the individual with the allergy is so offended by having that animal on board the aircraft, our guidance to the carrier would probably be if they can't mitigate the situation on board and that person is so agitated by the presence of that animal on board, the aircraft our guidance to the airline would be to seek to reaccommodate the person with the allergy.
PETER BERG
All right, excellent. Go ahead.
ANNE HAMMOND
Nope. It is okay. Thank you.
PETER BERG
Thank you. Real quickly Livaughn, and Anne, who is responsible for training airline staff regarding requirement for service animals and emotional support under the act?
LIVAUGHN CHAPMAN
Part 382 requires airlines to conduct training that to proficiency that is appropriate to the function of the airline employee. So with respect to airlines they have got to provide their front line employees with training regarding a variety of things, including service animals. And, of course, this is an area that is important to airlines particularly in the context of emotional support animals. So airlines do indeed provide this training. Airlines also I should note are required by part 382 to have an expert that is reachable either in person or by telephone at any time that the airline is operating. This person is referred to in the rule as a complaint resolution official or CRO. As a practical matter most of the airlines train all of their supervisors to be CROs. But they would be the airline expert on all things related to part 382 of carriage of passengers with disabilities. The airline is responsible under the rule in a nutshell to train.
PETER BERG
Excellent. We are at the bottom of hour and see if we can get a couple more questions. We’ve had quite a few. If a person with a disabilities has to move in to hotel is there an emotional support animal allowed to be in the hotel as well. If we are talking to transient lodging under Title II or Title III, the definition of a service animal under the ADA is going to apply and the transient lodging would not be obligated to allow an emotional support animal. Sometimes Amanda you may want to touch on this quickly, some type of housing may be transient in nature if not long term, while you may have other areas within that facility that is more -- that is intended for longer term stay where you may have application of FHA and not the ADA.
AMANDA MOTYKA
No, I think you are hitting it right on the head on what, you know, what's applicable and what’s not. A lot of the times it is just how you would find -- how you would look at it where the funding is going, where the funding is coming from, things like that. So yeah, no hotels oftentimes no, you are not going to be able to bring in emotional support animal but, you know, if it is a shelter receiving some kind of federal funding or something that would trigger the other regulations to kick in, then, you know, then maybe you could have your emotional support animal. But just in general with like a hotel stay something like that, no.
PETER BERG
Excellent. We have gone passed the bottom of the hour and we still have received a lot of questions. There was a lot of interest obviously in this particular session. So we want to thank all of our presenters today. Amanda, Livaughn and Anne not just for your time in joining us today but also the time that you put in preparing your presentation and preparing for today's session. It is greatly appreciated by all of us at the -- within the ADA national network. We appreciate the ability to work with the various federal agencies and get this information out to the folks that need it. So for those of you that asked questions and didn't get your question answered, couple of different things, contact information for our presenters has been provided. For the individual that was looking for the URL on slide 87, you can download the handout so the handout will be made available again when the archive is posted you can access that slide 87 from the URL from the Department of Transportation. You have contact information for the speakers. You can also contact your regional ADA center and you can find the ADA center that serves your state by visiting www.adata.org. Finally I want to mention that our next session in the audio conference series will take place on March 15th and you can get information about that session and register for that session by visiting www.ada-audio.org. That session is going to be audio description, the visual made verbal and our presenter will be Joe Schneider and if you have questions regarding the ADA audio conference series visit www.ada-audio.org or you can contact us toll-free at 877-232-1990. So again thank you to our presenters today for all of the great information they were able to provide to us and more importantly thanks to the participants for all of you joining us today. Thank you very much and have a good day.
Operator
Okay ladies and gentleman, this does conclude your conference and you may disconnect. Have a great day.