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Guide dog access

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1. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), privately owned businesses that serve the public, such as restaurants, hotels, retail stores, taxicabs, theaters, concert halls, and sports facilities, are prohibited from discriminating against individuals with disabilities. The ADA requires these businesses to allow people with disabilities to bring their service animals onto business premises in whatever areas customers are generally allowed.

2. It is illegal to deny someone an apartment due to the presence of his or her guide dog. It is also illegal to charge extra for the dog in any rental situation.

Learn more at our GDUI Accessibility & Legal Resource Center

You can assist GDUI in a national information gathering project on housing discrimination.

If during the past three to five years you, as a guide dog user, were discriminated against when attempting either to rent an apartment or to purchase a condominium, your experience can assist guide dog users nationally. GDUI is looking for some cases of clear cut housing discrimination and we are interested in learning if discrimination in housing occurs more in specific parts of this country.

Please email your experiences to housing@gdui.org or call them into Jane Sheehan at (888) 858-1008.

If you are willing to be contacted for more information about your experience of discrimination, please give your name, address, phone number and email address. If you are not interested in being contacted, please feel free to give a detailed discription of your experience as that will be helpful to us too. If you have an address or phone number for the entity that discriminated against you, please include that in your email or phone submission.

Please share this message with your friends or anyone you know who has a guide dog. A detailed retelling of your experience will be invaluable in assisting us in advocating for the housing rights of all guide dog users. Thank you very much.

Debbie Grubb, President
Guide Dog Users, Inc.

One of the most important functions of GDUI is our ability to advocate for people who are blind and work with guide dogs. On November 26, 2003, GDUI joined with four guide dog training schools to file a complaint with the United States Department of Justice on behalf of Ms. Stephanie Dohmen against the Iowa Department for the Blind. Read the materials and audio programs involving this nationally significant case.