The rights of individuals with disabilities to fair treatment and equal access is protected by federal law in the U.S. under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Many countries have similar laws. While several important forms of protection are written into federal law, it can be challenging for individuals with disabilities to ensure those rights are respected in the workplace, at school, in restaurants and the like. One reason is that federal and state law leaves matters in a grey area when it comes to accessing places with either service or emotional support animals. While federal law creates rights to access with a service animal so long as an individual has a medically documented disability and the animal (e.g., dog) provides a significant service in relationship to the medical condition, many disabilities related to diagnoses such as PTSD, diabetes, epilepsy and many others, are "invisible" conditions. As a result, individuals with animals that provide a disability service or emotional support often find that they are being questioned about whether or not the animal really needs to be with its owner when they enter places normally restricted for pets.
Many find it surprising to learn that there is no official federal or state registry for individuals who have service animals in the U.S. or many other countries. For individuals who have animals that provide some kind of support for a medical condition, it is not clear where the line is between a service animal that is for an ADA recognized disability and an emotional support (ES) animal. In fact, the line is grey, especially in cases such as PTSD, seizure, and other “invisible” conditions. This gives rise to a serious problem because more than 20 states in the U.S. and in other countries have passed laws imposing significant penalties (e.g., criminal misdemeanor and a $1000 fine) if an individual seeks access for an animal that does not fully meet the requirements in the ADA or other relevant law.
Our solution to the problem is to develop and implement an identification and record keeping system based on the Atala Prism DID for owners of service and ES animals. The system will enable owners of service and ES animals to keep their medical, training and other essential records securely, but in a form that empowers them to choose what information will be shared if they are questioned or denied access.
The ID and record keeping system will be developed in stages starting with an interactive website in a beta form that will provide several functions: (1) educational resources for owners of animals that provide service or emotional support, (2) educational resources for owners of business, administrators and teachers in schools and at universities, health care professionals who write support letters, etc. (3) straightforward explanations of the relevant federal and state legal standards, (4) a database for medical records documenting disability and animal training records to document service provided in relation to disability, and (5) a online registration system for owners and their animals and (6) and digital ID showing the owner and animal are in the online system. The website will be linked to Atala Prism via the APIs so that the ID and records will be held and processed securely in the Cardano system. In a further stage of the project, we propose to incorporate the system as a nonprofit DAO in the state of Wyoming that will be managed by and for the community of individuals having disabilities calling for the use of a service animal as well as those having medical conditions that warrant the use of emotional support animals.
In addition to focusing on challenges concerning inclusion and equity, we intend to address a secondary issue, which are the many difficulties involved in optimizing digital systems, such as dApps built for Cardano, so that they are widely accessbile for all individuals regardless of disability. Whether the underlying medical condition is impaired sight, impaired motor function, or some other condition, many individuals with disabilities find it difficult to design and implement online systems that are optimally accessible for individuals having a wide range of medical conditions giving rise to one or another form of disability. We plan to address this problem in our own work and, in doing so, to document the solutions that seem to particularly germane to the use of the Atala Prism ID system and Cardano dApps. As anyone who has used a digital wallet can attest, they would be practically impossible for many who have disabilities effectively to use without assistance. These sorts of problems need to addressed and overcome.
We have the team, experience and resources necessary to accomplish the goals established for the first phase of this project. For the second and third phases, team members plan to gain additional expertise as developers using the Atala Prism DID system. These members are approved for the next stage of the Atala Prism pioneer program. In addition, we aim to grow our team to provide additional expertise in the Atala Prism system. As such, we believe the primary challenge we face is to gain adoption of the ID and record system. In order to increase the odds of adoption, we are exploring partnerships with established providers of medical records for pets, such as are in widespread use by veterinarian practices. Our team has the marketing, sales and public relations expertise needed to grow the community of users and the legal expertise needed to create the DAO for individuals having disabilities.