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What I don’t understand is why there’s no pushback on increasing the need for certification of the dogs. It’s perfectly obvious just how few of them have even basic training ,let alone specific training for a task related to disability. It seems like a fairly simple solution. In order for a dog to be allowed it must be trained by a specific organization (or at least tested by one) and require that in order to be allowed to have such an animal in public places they need to be diagnosed with a specific condition that requires a dog as accommodation.
I feel the same about other mental health issues. The accommodations are available and the systems are abused because the vetting is nonexistent. ADHD has attracted so much fakery that I just instantly think “disappointed perfectionist seeking ADA accommodations” when someone brings it up. Likewise when someone says “Autistic” I just naturally assume that the person is scamming the ADA for protection. I’ll make exceptions if the person has extremely obvious symptoms and claims a mental illness. But to me, the process of Mental Illness Gentrification (which FdB talks about) has so muddled the concept of disability and especially mental health or similar “invisible” disabilities that I instantly think “defector” when someone tries to claim one.
Until we really start to clamp down on just anyone getting ADA accommodations at basically a say so, I’d almost rather do away with the system outside of architecture concerns just because it’s actually the reverse of the intent of the law. It started as a way to get people who were too sick, disabled or injured to participate in society to be included. It’s turned into a new way to shut people out because most people with actual disability cannot afford to get diagnosed and treated. The normal people obviously are in much better position to get diagnosed because they have the disposable income to go to the psychiatrist and because they’ve done their research know what to say to get diagnosed. They’re also more normal (because they don’t actually have the disorders they claim, so they can succeed and be normal and simply get a leg up over the autistic person or the person with actual ADHD who can’t just knuckle down and be better and do better.
It's part of a more-than-thirty-year-old regulation, and the necessary parts of the Department of Justice and Department of Transportation that make
upthe relevant rulemaking processes are never going to want to get involved in the necessary levels of oversight, nevermind do so with enough clarity and consistency that normal businesses will be willing to take the risk of allowing employees to make a decision. Because a lot of actual enforcement tends to involve veterans, it's a political third rail even for otherwise regulation-skeptical conservatives.There's some Reason-style pushback, but because there's such a mess for any implementation -- who does the certifications? how do you verify that they aren't just some web template? -- there's no clear better local maxima with a path to reach it short of full prohibition, and there's no political will to do that.
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