Service Animals | Disability Rights Florida
Service Animal
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 2010 Regulations define a service animal as “any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. Other species of animals, whether wild or domestic, trained or untrained, are not service animals for the purposes of this definition." C.F.R. § 35.104 and § 36.104 (2010).
If they meet this definition, dogs are considered service animals under the ADA regardless of whether they have been licensed or certified by a state or local government.
Work and Tasks
According to the § 35.104 and § 36.104 (2010), examples of work and tasks performed by service animals include, but are not limited to:
• guiding people who are blind or have low vision
• alerting people who are deaf or hard of hearing
• providing non-violent protection or rescue work
• pulling a wheelchair
• assisting an individual during a seizure
• alerting individuals to the presence of allergens
• retrieving items
• providing physical support and assistance with balance and stability to individuals with mobility disabilities
• helping persons with psychiatric or neurological disabilities by preventing or interrupting impulsive or destructive behaviors
• reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, or
• calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack.