Carnival Fairs and Service Dogs

Planning on riding a traveling carnival ride or staying in that cozy bed and breakfast with the family dog? Joe Zesski answers questions related to disability and accessibility regarding these two questions in this edition of Ask About the ADA. For a transcript of today's episode, feel free to email northeastada@cornell.edu

Transcript

Carnival Fairs and Service Dogs (Episode 8)

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JOE ZESSKI: Hello. Welcome to Ask About the ADA, the podcast where we answer your questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act and how it applies to your everyday life. I'm Joe Zesski, the program manager of the Northeast ADA Center. 

And on today's episode of Ask About the ADA, we're going to talk a little bit about traveling. It's the time of year, in the summer and fall, when it's a good time to be out and about. And we're going to address two technical assistance questions that we've received. One is about traveling carnivals and amusement rides, and the other about bed and breakfast and what requirements might be in place regarding service animals. 

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Let's begin with the first question, and here's what it asks. "How do the ADA standards apply to amusement rides at traveling carnivals?" And this is an excellent question because we're talking about a temporary event, essentially. Traveling carnivals are not permanent installations. They're not meant to be permanently in place, but rather on a limited basis. 

And so mobile or portable amusement rides that you would typically find at a traveling carnival or perhaps county fairs and related festivals are not actually required to comply with the ADA standards for accessible design. 

Now that being said, it's important to keep in mind that accessible features do still need to be provided at other areas for the temporary event. In other words, at other areas for the traveling carnival or county fair. So things that are used by attendees, like parking or restrooms or concession stands-- these must be accessible to people with disabilities even if the carnival itself or the fair itself is only temporary in nature. 

The rides may not need to comply. However, the other elements that must be accessible do need, in fact, to comply with the ADA standards for accessible design. 

Now let's go to our second question. "I live in and own a bed and breakfast that has four rooms. Do I have to allow service animals or emotional support animals to stay?" This is actually a really good question, and the first part we should address is emotional support animals. It's important to keep in mind that emotional support animals are covered under the Fair Housing Act and not the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

So in terms of the ADA, there would be no requirement to allow an emotional support animal in a place of lodging regardless of other factors. Let's look more directly at the ADA question, and the answer here is still no. The definition of a place of lodging under the ADA is limited, and it has some restrictions to it. 

A place of lodging that has five rooms or less and that is occupied by the owner as their primary residence is not covered by the ADA. So your bed and breakfast would be excluded from the covered definition of a place of lodging as a public accommodation under Title III. 

However, if you no longer lived in the bed and breakfast, or if the individual in this case decided to add two additional rooms to the four that they currently have so that a total of six rooms would be available to guests, then this person would in fact be covered as a place of lodging under Title III as a public accommodation. And therefore, allowing a service animal would be required. 

But again, since this individual only has four rooms and they live, as their primary residence, at this bed and breakfast, currently they do not have to allow service animals, although typically you would expect in most places of lodging, like a hotel or motel or a larger bed and breakfast, that service animals would need to be permitted. 

If you wanted to learn more about service animals and where they can go and where they can stay, you might want to visit the Northeast ADA toolkit on Service Animals in Public Spaces. You can go to northeastada.org to find that, or you can also go to the url serviceanimalquestions.org. Those are ways that you can find out more information about these types of questions regarding service animals and access. 

That's it for today's episode of Ask About the ADA. I hope you found it interesting and informative. If you have questions about the ADA and how it might apply to you, please feel free to reach out to us and ask your questions. You can find us at northeastada.org. You can call us at 1-800-949-4232, or you can find us on social media by looking for @NortheastADA. 

Thanks as always to Will Warren, our student producer for Ask About the ADA, and thanks as well to Peter Quinn of our Yankton Institute media team for providing final polishing and editing to the podcast. We hope you have enjoyed today's episode, and we're glad that you have joined us to be a part of the conversation. 

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