Service Animals in Public Spaces

Helping businesses understand working service animals

If you own or work for an establishment that sells goods and services to the public, you should know more about service animals! What they are, what they do, and what your obligations are to permit them in your space.

This toolkit helps businesses, public entities—these include state and local government offices, public schools, city parks, and much more—and the general public to understand service animals and the valuable assistance they provide people with disabilities. You will find a clear definition of a service animal. You will also find examples of tasks they have been trained to do for people with specific disabilities.

Each tool contains scenarios based on real-life experiences that we’ve heard about on our support telephone line. You’ll be able to consider how you might respond to each situation and read a recommended response from an ADA expert.

Each tool also includes a test-yourself quiz. Your answers are not recorded anywhere, but you’ll get immediate feedback.

The four tools are these:

  1. What Is a Service Animal? Much more than just a dog
  2. Service Animals in the Community: What exactly are the rules?
  3. The Benefit of Access for All: The case for business success
  4. Service Animal Etiquette: Best practices when interacting with service animals

If you need additional information, you can also explore our favorite Service Animal resources, which includes a webinar introduction to this site (53:33).