Wheelchair Accessible Counseling and Therapy
The Studio Works building: The office, lobby, bathroom, and waiting room public spaces on my the main floor are also wheelchair accessible.
Service Dogs Are Welcome
What Is a Service Dog?
According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA, 1990), a dog is considered a “service dog” if it has been “individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability.” Also according to the ADA, a ‘disability’ is a “mental or physical condition which substantially limits a major life activity” such as:
- caring for one’s self
- performing manual tasks
- walking
- seeing
- hearing
- speaking
- breathing
- as well as some disabilities that may not be visible, such as deafness, epilepsy, and some psychiatric conditions
A dog is recognized as a “service dog” under the ADA when the following conditions are met:
- The owner or handler has a documented disability as defined under the ADA
- The dog must be trained to perform a task or tasks that alleviate that disability. To be considered a service dog, that animal must be trained to perform tasks directly related to the person’s disability. According to the ADA, emotional support or therapeutic assistance dogs who do not perform a specific task, but rather provide comfort simply from their presence do not qualify a dog as a service animal (e.g. a dog that helps someone feel less anxious or provides motivation to get out of bed in the morning would not meet this definition of a “service dog”)
- The dog must not alter the environment for others. This means that s/he must be kept on a leash and under the control of the handler at all times in public, must not show signs of aggression, and must be kept quiet and clean.
