Hello and welcome to the Disability Law Lowdown ASL podcast. My name is Lori Mallory. I am your host of this ASL podcast. We're happy you found us and hope you enjoy this ASL podcast.

The Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) prohibits discrimination by air carriers against individuals with disabilities. Most parts of the ACAA were covered in an earlier podcast, but this one is going to focus just on service animals. If you use a hearing dog or other service animal, then you need to know about these parts of the ACAA.

The ACAA definition of service animals includes guide dogs, signal dogs, psychiatric service animals, and emotional support animals. Airlines are required to allow service animals traveling with persons with disabilities to sit with them in the cabin of the aircraft. Persons traveling with pets, which are not service animals or emotional support animals, do not have any rights under the ACAA.

To determine whether a person with a disability is entitled to travel with a service animal, airline personnel may ask questions and request documentation in certain circumstances. The questions that may be asked and the type of documentation that may be required will vary, depending on the disability and the type of service animal. The reason for this is because many people with disabilities do not have obvious disabilities and the reason they need a service animal is not clear. Even for some individuals who have obvious disabilities, the reason they need the service animal may not be clear.

The airline should allow the animal to accompany a person with a disability if the disability is obvious, and one of the following requirements is true: the service animal is wearing a harness, tags, vests, or backpack; the person provides identification cards or other written documentation; or the individual credibly assures the airline that it is a service animal.

If airline personnel are not certain that the animal is a service animal, they can ask questions like “What tasks or functions does your animal perform for you?,” “What has the animal been trained to do for you?,” and “Would you describe how the animal performs this task or function for you?’’

For emotional support or psychiatric service animals, airlines may request very specific diagnostic documentation 48 hours before the flight. The documentation must: be current (not be more than one year old); be on letterhead from a psychologist or psychiatrist; state that the person has a mental or emotional disability and state that the animal is needed as an accommodation for air travel or for activity at the individual’s destination. The documentation should also state that the health professional is treating the individual and include the date and type of license the psychologist/ psychiatrist has and the state where it was issued. It does not need to state the specific diagnosis.

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The Disability Law Lowdown is sponsored by the Disability and Business Technical Assistance Centers (DBTAC) a network of ten ADA Centers around the country. The ADA Centers provide training and technical assistance on the Americans with Disabilities Act and other disability-related laws. If you have questions or would like more information, you can call us at 1-800-949-4232 (V/TTY).

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