Newark-area resident with assistance dog encouraging businesses to better support disabled people to access shops
A disabled resident who has faced ‘traumatic’ discriminatory experiences is urging businesses to ensure staff are trained and welcoming.
The resident, who relies on their assistance dog’s coat to alert people of their disability, has been unable to access a chain of convenience stores after facing issues with constantly being challenged and followed around by different staff telling them “no dogs allowed”.
In one case a member of the public even intervened to support the assistance dog owner.
Despite this being resolved and staff retrained after a complaint was made, the resident now emotionally struggles to visit the chain’s stores, as they explained: “Every visit reminds me of the trauma.”
They added they would not be emotionally able to shop there again, “until I can reconcile my mental wellbeing to cope with another potential discrimination experience”.
Under the Equality Act 2010, trained assistance dogs, including guide dogs, hearing dogs and others, are considered as auxiliary aids — the same as a wheelchair or white cane would be — rather than as a pet dog.
Businesses and venues of any size, barring some exceptional circumstances, are expected to ‘allow access to a disabled person with their highly trained assistance dog, even if a business or venue does not normally accept pet dogs’, according to Assistance Dogs UK advice.
The resident is encouraging businesses to access this advice, which is available on the Assistance Dogs UK website, to help them ensure they and their staff can avoid discriminatory behaviour towards assistance dog users.
They added: “Businesses do not gain anything by this sort of discrimination, and will lose customers in the long term.”
Genuine assistance dogs are generally recognisable by their harness, organisation-specific coat, lead slip or ID — though this is not a legal requirement — and will be highly trained, healthy, and not pose a hygiene risk.
“There are businesses who suffer customers with fake assistance dogs or support dogs. This can be a nightmare for businesses,” the resident added.
“In my experience shops/businesses are afraid of the Equality Act 2010 law and they should not be. As a consequence they let in fake assistance dogs rather than face court action.
“This is a huge problem for genuine assistance dogs and owners, causing more and more friction from businesses.”
While no assistance dog will be perfectly behaved 100% of the time, Assistance Dogs UK advises, frequent behaviours such as barking, lunging, or jumping up, aggressive or very fearful temperaments, lack of toilet training, or are poorly cared for and pose a hygiene risk are not expected — and in these cases refusing or revoking access may be justified.
