Ask About: Service Animal Handlers and Automatic Doors

Are there rules for service animal handlers under the Americans with Disabilities Act? Are automatic doors always required? This edition of Ask About the ADA covers two commonly asked questions about service animals and physical accessibility.

NortheastADA.org

Transcript

JOE ZESSKI: Hello. Welcome to Ask About the ADA, the podcast where we answered your questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act and how it applies to everyday life. 

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On this week's episode, we're going to go back to a webinar that the Northeast ADA hosted in December 20, 2001. The webinar was called What's the Question? And it featured the Technical Assistance Team here at the Northeast ADA answering frequently asked questions that we receive at the Center. We also asked the public to submit questions that they would like answered for the webinar. 

On today's episode, you're going to hear two of those questions. The first will be about the age of service animal handlers. And you'll hear my voice, Joe Zesski, answering that question. The second will be about automatic doors, and you'll hear Jennifer Perry, our Access Specialist here at the Northeast ADA, responding to that question. I hope you enjoy. 

And this is another question that came to us through our social media channels. The question is, can the handler of a service animal be a minor child, or under the authority of an adult or a parent? So in other words, can the child who uses a service animal be considered the handler if there's a adult or parent who is assisting the child? 

This brings up an interesting question. I mentioned earlier in terms of who is covered by the ADA that there's no age specified by the law itself. And here, we're talking about the regulations that come out of the law. Again, the Department of Justice who enforces titles II and III, or majority of the provisions and Titles II and III of the ADA, don't specify a specific age for an animal handler. That being said, there are obligations that an animal handler is responsible for and that may be able to be done by someone under 18, but it may not be able to be done by someone who's younger than that. 

So it's a little bit on a case-by-case basis. However, certainly a child who needs the assistance of a service animal could be accompanied by an adult or parent who acts in that capacity of being the handler for the animal for the child. And this comes up in a context I'll talk about in just a moment. 

What's important to keep in mind in terms of a service animal handler is that the dog in question, or miniature horse if it happens to be that case, must always maintain control of the service animal. So if a dog is running off its harness, if it's barking unnecessarily, if it's being aggressive towards someone, it's not going to be under the control of the handler. And so there may be issues that come up there. 

However, if the child, or the minor, or their adult or parent in this scenario is maintaining control of the animal, they're probably meeting what their obligations are. The handler is responsible for the animal in terms of its conduct and its care. This came up in a case that was brought to the Department of Justice several years ago in New Jersey in terms of the Delran Township School District where a young person who had a disability had a parent that wanted to accompany the person on a field trip, on several field trips, and be there to control the service animal so that the person could be assisted by the service animal. 

And there was conflict between the school and the family about whether or not this should be permitted. And the long and the short of it was that the settlement agreement was reached where, yes, the child who uses the service animal does have a right to be accompanied by their service animal if the service animal, as it did in this case, provides unique services that are necessary for the child with a disability. 

The parent could act as the service animal handler and be permitted on the school premises. Again, this was at a public school so this was the Title II case that came up. And again, service animals typically have the right to go wherever the general public are permitted, as a general rule. So that is important to keep in mind. However, it does have to be stressed that a covered public entity or public accommodation, they bear no responsibility for controlling or for caring for the service animal. 

So again, it's not just allowing a child's animal to accompany them. It does always have to be a service animal under the control of a handler, whether that's directly the child themselves, or if it is the parent or adult accompanying the child. 

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And now, let's hear from Jennifer about another question. 

JENNIFER PERRY: Thank you, Joe. So continuing on with some of our most commonly asked questions. This is one that we get pretty frequently here at the Northeast ADA Center. And I know it's not unique to our region, it's something that many of the TA specialists, in chatting with my coworkers throughout the country, this is something that often comes up. And I think it's just a general misunderstanding about what is required by the ADA. 

So the question usually goes something like this. I visited a new office in town and they do not have an automatic door. Doesn't the ADA require that in new buildings? And the short answer is that, no, the ADA Standards for Accessible Design-- that's what regulates the design and construction of accessible facilities-- does not specifically mandate that automatic or power-assist doors must be provided. Now, when they are provided, there are clear requirements related to accessibility that have to be complied with. 

But again, the ADA standards don't mandate that you have to have an automatic or a power-assist door. Having said that, there still are a variety of other design requirements that a door must meet in order to be considered accessible in terms of the ADA standards for design that is. So if it's a manual door, there certainly are other requirements that do come into play. I'll share some of those with you momentarily. 

But the true benefit, if you will, for automatic doors is that they really are kind of universally accessible. They work for everybody. And the ADA standards for design should very much be viewed as a baseline-- a minimum, if you will-- requirement for accessibility. Whereas universal design takes the approach that designing not only buildings and facilities, but even things like products or technology with a variety of end users in mind really just leads to a more accessible environment for everybody, not just for people with disabilities. 

Automatic doors are a classic example of that. Obviously, they are of great use if you are leaving the grocery store and you're pushing a cart. Imagine if we all had to push the doors. So you'll see them in those types of occupancies. And they also pop up a lot at other high traffic retail stores. We've all seen them there. 

One of the reasons, from an ADA perspective, that may drive the installation of an automatic door is because there is something in the ADA standards that mandates how much push or pull can be exercised when you're trying to operate a door. Now, the ADA standards are silent on how much force-- what's a maximum amount of force, I should say-- for exterior doors. But the Department of Justice regulations go on to say that even though we don't have a firm and fast number for what is too much pounds of force for an exterior door, we still know that door has to be-- and I'm using air quotes here-- "usable" by people with disabilities. 

So by contrast, if you're talking about an interior door that's on an accessible route, we know that can't require more than five pounds of force to push or pull open. At exterior doors, it's harder to really navigate that because you have things like wind. Depending on how hard the wind is blowing at a certain point in time, that's going to directly impact the amount of force that you're going to need to push or to pull a door open. 

So because of that, if you were to own a place of business, just as an example, you have to grapple with, is this exterior door still usable by people that are visiting my place of business? And particularly if it's a high traffic area, as I said, many business owners will defer to installing an automatic door. I would never discourage anyone from doing that, or having a power-assist feature. Both are great options, and as I said, universally accessible. 

However, again, just to be clear, the ADA standards never say that you must have an automatic door at your entrance. And that is something that we do get quite of a lot of calls about. Now, here's just-- I'm not going to go through this in detail, but just for your information-- when I said that there are accessibility requirements for manual doors that they have to meet in order to be considered accessible, here's just a few of those requirements. 

We'll start with a door must have at least 32 inches of clear width if you open the door at a 90 degree angle. It also has to have accessible hardware so that the hardware, when you're grasping it, is within accessible reach ranges and it can be usable by somebody with a disability. There's even regulations that dictate the height, if you have a sidelight in the door, the lowest portion of that. There must be a smooth surface on the push side of the door. So if you're somebody who does use a mobility device and the front foot rest of your wheelchair are pushing against the door, you don't want to have any kind of entrapment issues. So that must be a smooth surface. 

And then maneuvering clearance. And maneuvering clearance is kind of a fancy term, if you will, for space. It has nothing encroaching in your way so that you have enough area, if you're using a mobility device, to get close enough to the door to push or to pull it open, and if necessary, to get yourself out of the swing of the door so that you can safely use the door and go through it. So those are just a few of the requirements. 

So I just wanted to point that out because as I said, there are requirements for accessibility that are tied to manual doors. And a door must meet those very clearly in order to be considered in compliance with the ADA standards for design. 

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JOE ZESSKI: That's it for today's episode. I hope you found it interesting and informative. And if you would like to ask a question about the Americans with Disabilities Act or other disability related topics, please feel free to reach us here at the Northeast ADA Center by visiting our website, northeastADA.org, by calling us at 800-949-4243 if you live in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, or the US Virgin Islands. 

And of course, you can also look for us on social media. Just looked for Northeast ADA on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and reach out to us. Thanks also to Grace Fairchild, our producer for the podcast and editor. And thank you also to Peter Quinn of the Yang-Tan Institute's Media Team for doing further edits on the podcast. 

We hope you have enjoyed today's episode, and we are glad that you have been part of the conversation. 

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