Cambridge City Council Ignores ADA and Service Dog rights
A woman who lives in Cambridge, Mass. a disabled woman wanted to sit in on the city council meetings but was refused because she has a service dog. The dog was in the chamber several times before without issue, but suddenly one of the council members has become allergic to animals. Even with the dog at one end of the room and the council woman at the other, there were complaints. The mayor then stepped in and said he was surprised that anyone would think that they have the constitutional rights to go to a city council meeting or bring a service dog to it. He believes that the ADA does not exist and that disabled people do not have the right to bring a service dog to city council meetings. It is sad that public figures, have no idea what the laws are, and like to create their own interpretations of what the law really is. A video was made of the meeting so everyone could see how this disabled person was treated. (Source: votekathy.blogspot.com)
Most elected officials are lawyers so one would think and hope that they could have some idea what the law of the land is. For those that are not lawyers, they need to get up to speed quickly as these people are making laws that effect all of us. We need to think carefully before creating new laws as they may be in violation of state or national law. The Americans for Disabilities Act is a federal law that requires that all states follow it. This includes city councils as well. Service animals are allows to go virtually anywhere that a disabled person goes and that is the end of it. The disabled person needs that animal to get around and to help them do their daily tasks like shopping, working, or going to a city council meeting. It is sad that the mayor actually said that he was shocked that people actually thought they had the right to show up to a public meeting that will directly effect them. Maybe the mayor believes that laws and rules should be made in a vacuum without the benefit of hearing from those that live in his city? In our country, all of our voices are important which is why we have the 1st amendment to the constitution and we all have the right to vote for those that make our rules and laws. It is expected that we are listened to and that changes are made based on what the public wants.
The present work on changes to our medical system demands that we let congress know what we want. The President set up town halls meetings to hear what we had to say. Congressmen and senators have been listening to phone calls, faxes, emails, and letters from constituents that care about what happens to health care in this country. No where does it say that if you are disabled, please get lost. We didn’t hear the proclamation that if you have a service animal please do not show up to the town hall meeting. On the contrary, it was expected that the disabled would show up since they are dealing with the health care system know and would be the best people to hear what should be changed. Why are these meetings different than a city council meetings? Our congressmen understand how important it is to listen to what the voters what as they can be voted out of office if they don’t. This city council looked like they wanted to hand down their own edicts without understanding federal law and what the disabled are allowed to do.
The disabled have rights just like everyone else and special laws were passed to make sure everyone understood that. Unfortunately there are those that don’t want to see the disabled and wish they would go away. There were laws called "ugly" laws that were passed to get rid of the disabled so the rest of the population didn’t need to see them. The ADA forced those laws out of existence and made sure that the disabled had access to the same rights as everyone else. They can buy homes wherever they want, can own a car, go to college and have a family. They do not have to ask for permission or get a sign off before they have a child. Additional rights were given so that the disabled could interact with others, which included service dogs. Congress understood that the disabled needed more help and gave the disabled the right to get animal helpers and allowed them to go wherever the disabled person goes. Hopefully these stories will help to stop civil rights violations and let the country know what is going on. That is why we have freedom of the press…something that some people in this country wished didn’t exist either. We have a lot of work ahead of us to make this an equal country, but there are plenty of folks that want this to be so lets work together to make it reality.
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Disabled 67-yr-old female STILL FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT FOR SERVICE/ALERT DOGS and other service animals.
Would love to read your entire post, but my attention span is that of a gnat’s eyelashes.
I have been–and still am–fighting: landlords, government officials, church members feeding the hungry, EASTER SEALS!!! No Joke! Easter Seals, the great big fabulous entity that WORKS WITH THE DISABLED–THE VERY PERSON THEY ARE PERSECUTING! THIS IS IN SACRAMENTO, CA. They truly should be ashamed of themselves. Revealing such ignorance in a demand that I get the animal off their “campus,” is pretty stupid, in my opinion. I hope somebody writes to them before I get to it!!!
I have not sued anybody yet, but Easter Seals seems like a good start, since they really ought to–if anybody should– know (1) what a Service Animal is, and (2) that it gets to go where the owner of the animal gets to go.
Folks, this is not brain surgery or astrophysics!
Fighting hurts everybody, but we just have to put some hydrogen peroxide on our hearts/minds and take off the gloves.
More power to to that brave lady who wants to sit on the City Council. GO FOR IT, BABE!
Round 13 coming up!