Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Popeyes Apologizes To Customer With Service Dog

Excerpt from The Consumerist: (click for entire article)

Yesterday we brought you the story of a Georgia man who said he was wrongly kicked out of a Popeyes restaurant because of his service dog. And while the restaurant chain is sticking by its side of the story, it has released an official apology to the customer.

"After reviewing all of the facts, I think we could have handled the situation better," a Popeyes rep tells the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "In an effort to avoid further conflict, the manager attempted to defuse the situation by asking the guest with the service dog to leave. In doing so, we regretfully offended him."

The restaurant had alleged that the reason the man was asked to leave — and the reason the police were called — was that the customer had gotten into a verbal altercation with other customers whose children were frightened by the dog. The customer has denied this, saying no such argument took place.

Popeyes Customer With Service Dog & Popeyes Manager Tell Two Completely Different Tales

Excerpt from The Consumerist: (click for entire article)

A 20-year-old diabetic says he was rudely kicked out of a Popeyes eatery in Georgia because of his service dog, and that the local police refused to even discuss the topic. However, the restaurant's manager says something completely different.

The customer has Type 1 diabetes and has been using a service dog trained to alert him to sudden spikes or drops in his blood sugar level. Last week, he says his blood sugar was dropping so he popped into the Popeyes for some food and a sweet tea.

According to the customer, the restaurant manager allegedly asked him if it was a seeing eye dog and then told him to leave because he couldn't have the dog in the building. When the customer tried to explain the need for his service dog, he says the manager called the police, who were not exactly helpful.

Student Sues University For Discriminating Against Her And Service Dog

Excerpt from Planet of the Blind: (click for entire article)

A deaf student and the Fair Housing Council of Oregon are suing Portland State University for more than $1 million claiming that the university has repeatedly discriminated against students with disabilities.

Student Cindy Leland claims that in fall 2010 university housing employees refused to let her and her service dog live in Stephen Epler Hall because it was carpeted. She and her dog instead were allowed to move into another university building, The Broadway, which does not have carpets.

She alleges she was routinely harassed -- she believes because of her disability -- with knocks on the door at night. Her dog had been trained to alert her to the knocks, and Leland would get up to discover no one at her door. She ended up sleeping only a few hours a night during finals week. After officials declined her request to install a security camera and the knocks grew more frequent, she moved out.

Hippotherapy and Balance

Excerpt from Your Therapy Source: (click for entire article)

Physical Therapy published research on the effects of hippotherapy on balance.  Sixteen children with documented balance problems participated in 45 minute hippotherapy sessions, 2 times per week for 6 weeks.  Following the intervention the participants exhibited a statistical difference on the Pediatric Balance Scale (PBS) on the Activities Scale for Kids—Performance (ASKp).  The researchers concluded that hippotherapy may be a viable strategy for reducing balance deficits and improving the performance of daily life skills in children with mild to moderate balance problems.

My First Minute with a Guide Dog, Recalled After Years

Excerpt from Planet of the Blind: (click for entire article)

Did the man know what “safe” meant? He had to concede he hadn’t known until Corky came into his life. Before meeting her he'd been dancing on a weak floor. Really, the floor of his world had been like the planks in an old farmhouse. As a teenager, with his sighted friends, he’d break into abandoned houses and the boys would walk timidly over sagging boards. They might fall into the dark cellar with the next step or the next. He hadn’t been afraid. It was just blindness extended. If you live in the absence of safety you can't magnify it.

Essay: A Guide Dog in Motion

Excerpt from Planet of the Blind: (click for entire article)

No one is really an independent man or woman. The notion that you should live without help is a modern idea.  Ancient people just wouldn’t understand it. The rider of a horse in the age of Sophocles saw his steed as both a form of transport and a means of keeping time--a horse was a clock. A horse’s day of labor was a calendar. 

A horse was a figure of dreams. Very likely a horse could reveal your fortune. “Show me your horse and I will tell you what you are,” says an old English proverb. Throughout history horses and dogs have kept us alive.

Service Animals

Excerpt from ADA.gov: (click for entire article)

The Department of Justice published revised final regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for title II (State and local government services) and title III (public accommodations and commercial facilities) on September 15, 2010, in the Federal Register. These requirements, or rules, clarify and refine issues that have arisen over the past 20 years and contain new, and updated, requirements, including the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design (2010 Standards).

Are persons with psychiatric disabilities partnered with psychiatric service dogs covered under the ADA.?

Excerpt from Service Dog Central: (click for entire article)

First, let's examine definitions under regulatory law, specifically 28CFR36.104:

"Disability means, with respect to an individual, a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual; a record of such an impairment; or being regarded as having such an impairment."

...and...

"mental impairment means -- ... Any mental or psychological disorder such as mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities...[including but not limited to]...mental retardation, emotional illness, [and] specific learning disabilities...."

Bringing Service Animals to School: Some Tips for Parents

Excerpt from IEP Advocate 4 You: (click for entire article)

I am happy to report that after two months of resistance, I was successful in getting a Psychiatric Service Dog (PSD) in a public school in Forsyth County, GA.  There was much opposition and delay, but the PSD and his owner are now both doing well in public school today.
 
Below is a recently published article outlining steps to take. (Wish we had it for our case!)
 
I would simply additionally add if you have problems with a school district allowing a PSD, call the Office of Civil Rights (OCR).  Tell them about your case, give them details and get the name of the person you would file a complaint to.  Do this before filing an official complaint.  Then contact the school system in writing one last time, tell them you have spoken with ____ at OCR and they have stated you have a right to bring your PSD to school.  Ask them to contact OCR themselves.  Then, without forewarning the school, show up the next day with the PSD (whether or not they have agreed to allow the dog or not).  Tell the school administrator, if they refuse to allow the PSD in the school building, you will immediately leave and file an OCR complaint.

Wonder Dog

Excerpt from The New York Times: (click for entire article)

In May 1999, Donnie Kanter Winokur, 43, a writer and multimedia producer, and her husband, Rabbi Harvey Winokur, 49, beheld the son of their dreams, the child infertility denied them. Andrey, a pale dark-eyed 1-year-old in a cotton onesie, held in a standing position by a caregiver, appeared in a short videotape recorded in a Russian orphanage. If the couple liked the little boy, they could begin the legal process of adopting him. They liked the little boy very much.

Four months later, the Winokurs flew to Russia from their home in Atlanta to adopt Andrey, whom they renamed Iyal, and to adopt an unrelated little girl two days younger, whom they named Morasha. All four appear in another orphanage video: the beaming new parents on the happiest day of their lives, the toddlers passive in the arms of the strangers cradling and kissing them. In August 1999, the family arrived home to congratulations, gifts and helium balloons.