Accessibility & Health

December 2024

Image of a person propelling themselves in a wheelchair with wide space ahead of them.

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We Need Your Feedback!

Are you passionate about the accessibility of community health programs? We are too, and we need your help to make our ADA compliance training materials better! At the IDRPP, we’ve created a training repository to support public health departments in ensuring accessibility, and now we need your feedback to ensure it’s serving your needs.

Join us for a one-on-one usability interview where you can use the materials and share your experience with us. Your insights will help us improve the materials and make a lasting impact on public health accessibility across Utah.

The interview will take about one hour and will be conducted over Zoom.

Click the link to sign up and help us create better resources for your community!

Questions?

Email Elle at Rebecca.Smith@usu.edu or Dr. Chen at Chen.Chen@usu.edu.

This study has been approved by the USU IRB (Protocol #14360).

PARTICIPATE

ADA Highlight - Service Animals

Emotional support animal vs. therapy dog vs. service dog

Have you ever found yourself in an uncomfortable situation regarding service animals? Here are some quick tips!

Public entities cannot ask for proof, like training certificates, to let a service animal in. They also cannot ask about the person's disability.

If it's not obvious that the dog is a service animal, they can only ask two questions:

1) Is the animal needed because of a disability?

2) What tasks has the dog been trained to do?

The ADA says service animals must be under control at all times, either with a harness, leash, or tether, unless these things get in the way of the animal’s job or the person's disability makes them hard to use. If the person can't use these devices, they must control the animal with their voice, a signal, or another way.

Public entities can only ask a service animal to leave if:

1) the dog is out of control and the person can't get it back under control, or

2) the dog is not housebroken.

If the animal is asked to leave, the person can still go into the place without the animal.

New Learning Resources!

Disability 101: Types of Accessibility

How do we create more inclusive environments? Here are a few starter ideas from Dr. Matthew Wappett, Executive Director of the Institute for Disability Research, Policy & Practice at USU.