Role of Assistance Animals in Disability

Assistance animals live with a person with a disability and provide necessary support that mitigates the impact of that person’s disability. The earliest assistance animals were Seeing Eye Dogs and Guide Dogs, but the working roles have expanded into other disability types, such as hearing impairments, mobility impairments, developmental and intellectual disabilities, psychiatric disabilities, and medical alert (e.g., for diabetes or epilepsy). Furthermore, other species are sometimes employed in assistance work, such as miniature horses and cats. Assistance animals differ from other animals in support roles, such as therapy and emotional support animals, due to the different levels of training required for assistance animals and the nature of the disability support they provide. In many jurisdictions, assistance animals have legal protections to access public spaces typically off-limits to animals. These laws exist to reduce discrimination against people with disability, but inconsistent wording of the laws at different levels within a given jurisdiction can mean that people with an assistance animal are unlawfully denied access to places they are entitled to go. The available research investigating the impact of assistance animals on their handlers is generally positive, but early research was limited by small sample sizes, retrospective self-reports, and subjective measures. More recent research is beginning to address these limitations. The evidence base is strongest for assistance animals for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. Anyone considering getting an assistance animal should consider where they will obtain the animal and how, and by whom, the animal will be trained. Animal welfare over the life of the animal must always be a top priority, and retirement plans should be established as the animal grows older.