News
Peter Torres Fremlin

Working like a dog

Barriers for assistance dogs, and curated disability news from 41 countries
A photo, in profile, of a golden retriever guide dog sitting obediently on a lawn and looking straight ahead, while her trainer, a Black man, stands behind her holding her lead. The photo has been taken from a low angle, almost as if it were from the dog's point-of-view. The trainer is talking to three people, who are standing with their hands crossed and listening to him attentively.
Kitty the guide dog. At the Guide Dogs for the Blind Training School I.A.P in Mexico City, Mexico, December 2024. Photo by Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto via Getty Images.

Dear Debriefers,

This edition is wagging its tail with news of good dogs, and much more in the bark and the bite of international disability news.

We start with an international survey showing the barriers that assistance dogs face, and reflections on the line between real and “fake” service dogs.

After that we visit heavy world news stories with a disability lens, seeing updates from Gaza and also from the chaos of the Trump administration in the United States.

But fortunately not all governments are as eager as Trump to send their country to the dogs, and there is good news in disability advocacy, as well as a great tip on weaponising corporate virtue signalling.

All this and more in an edition that curates the latest disability news from around the world.

Browse highlights below, or explore the full guide of 127 hand-picked links: curated across 41 countries or 38 subjects. this edition picks up from the update in September.

Show us the future: the Debrief is doing an open call for disability science fiction from 2050. We've already had some amazing submissions – keep them coming.

About this edition

The Debrief shares disability news through a pay-what-you-can model.

Peter Torres Fremlin is editor of Disability Debrief and is from the UK.

Working like a dog

A global survey of assistance dog handlers shows that 65% had encountered skepticism about their dog's legitimacy, and 43% had been refused access to public spaces in the past 12 months. 40% of respondents considered avoiding public places altogether.

These findings come from Paws for Access, a survey of 1,000 assistance dog handlers across 20 countries, conducted by the International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF) and Assistance Dogs International (ADI). It identifies access issues and how they vary across countries (public access refusal in the UK and Netherlands was over twice as frequent as in the United States, for example).

Respondents used a variety of assistance dogs, including but not limited to the more well-known concept of guide dogs for people with visual impairments. Other assistance dogs included hearing dogs, or those providing mobility support, medical response, or assisting with psychiatric disabilities.

Indeed the report defines assistance dogs in a way tied to a disability:

“Dogs that are specifically trained to perform tasks that mitigate the effects of a disability, including guiding, alerting, medical response, mobility support, and psychiatric assistance.”

This definition is designed to exclude emotional support animals, which “provide comfort but are not trained to perform disability-related tasks”.

Indeed, doubts about legitimacy of assistance dogs are shared by assistance dog users. The majority of those who faced skepticism over their own dog use “feel this has been a result of the increase of untrained assistance or emotional support dogs over time.” Further:

“Untrained assistance dogs are creating disruption to legitimate assistance dog handlers and have been adding to negative experiences in public spaces. Well over half of respondents (58%) have encountered interference (such as biting, lunging, snapping) from untrained assistance dogs, disrupting them and their dog from working safely.”

“Fake” Service Dogs

An alternative view on the boundary between trained and untrained dogs comes from a recent article by Amy Robertson, Divesting from the “Fake Service Dog” Narrative.

The relationship between Robertson and her service dog Eilish goes beyond “assistance”:

“I had no idea how much Eilish—both as a pet and as a team member—would change my life. She is spunky and opinionated and eager to work; she is clever and kind and bossy as all get out. The depth of relationship that she has brought into my world has healed me in ways I couldn’t have dreamed before her.”

In light of this Robertson pushes back on the distinction between “real” and “fake” service dogs. For her, that distinction is based on the idea of a service dog as an “ideal worker”, “an image that is deeply ableist”. She shows how these assumptions impose limitations on her and Eilish:

‘Mainstream public discourse about “fake” service dogs has created an environment in which I am hypervigilant and frequently downplay Eilish’s and my success as a team. I feel anxious every time Eilish steps an inch out of not just public access standards but also the expectations that people have of service dogs. I am hyperaware of the language I use when talking about what Eilish does for me, making sure that I use words like “task” and “trained” rather than language that suggests that Eilish’s presence brings me comfort (which it does), so as to distinguish her from an emotional support animal (Price, 2017). I internally minimize the compliments we receive from members of the public, and focus instead on the questioning looks, because that feels safer to me. I need Eilish to be able to be in the world with me, and the world has told me that to have her with me is to conform to a particular image.’

“A campaign of disablement”

It's now two years since Hamas' appalling attacks on Israel in October 2023, and two years of Israel's genocidal response.

United Nations experts warned that the recent Israeli offensive on Gaza city would be “apocalyptic” for people with disabilities:

“The genocide we are witnessing in Gaza is also a campaign of disablement – of people, resources, and infrastructure – to annihilate Palestinian life in Gaza.”

New reporting shows the techniques deaf people have had to learn to survive in a warzone, and how restrictions on aid leave those who have lost limbs without prosthetics or care.

Meanwhile, one of the activists joining the Global Sumud Flotilla was Fatima Hendricks, an occupational therapist from South Africa. She called attention to the “call for global action for Palestinian disability rights”.

Among those disabled by the Israeli attack on Gaza are Israeli soldiers themselves. The Israeli Defense Ministry reported treating 20,000 wounded soldiers in the past two years, more than half of whom were treated for mental health conditions.

“How low can you go?”

The Trump administration continues to undermine or stop essential supports for disabled people. (Continued from last month.)

The New Yorker profiles a fired federal employee to illustrate the “assault on disability rights”. Meanwhile Disability Scoop outlines the impact of the government's shutdown on people with disabilities.

One example of cuts is the Education Department halting funding for support to Deafblind students. As Maurice Belote, co-chair of the National DeafBlind Coalition, said to ProPublica, “how low can you go?”.

Another of Trump's executive orders pushes forcible hospitalization of homeless people. This is part of a wider global trend of involuntary mental health treatment.

The administration has also been spreading myths and disinformation about the causes of autism, including that it is caused by use of Tylenol (paracetamol) during pregnancy. As Sara Luterman and Barbara Rodriguez describe, this “isn't the first time moms have been blamed for their kids' autism”.

“A statement of national maturity”

Some better news comes from around the world, where some governments are taking measures to support disabled people.

Japan passed a law to promote sign language ahead of the upcoming Deaflympics. Kenya has a new Joint Disability Inclusion Strategy. And Papua New Guinea passed a Disability Services Bill. In the words of their Prime Minister:

“For the first time, we now have a piece of legislation that formally embraces, protects, and involves our citizens living with disabilities. It is not just law. It is a statement of compassion, a statement of national maturity, and a powerful message that every citizen matters. This Bill recognises the needs of over 1.5 million Papua New Guineans living with some form of disability.”

There is also good news from the World Health Organisation which has, in response to advocacy by people with albinism, added sunscreen to its essential medicines list.

As for Argentina, we saw last week the struggle over disability rights. Martín Passini describes the latest developments: the continuing national protests to implement the disability law passed by the Senate in response to the President's cuts to disability services.

Finances and aid fails

Finances of people with disabilities in Europe are “worse in the Balkans and Baltics”. Eurostat statistics show that across Europe “people with disabilities are more likely to struggle making ends meet than those without disabilities.”:

“However, fewer people are suffering economically in Luxembourg (8%), Germany (11%), the Netherlands (11.2%), or Finland (13.2%). By contrast, in Greece (75.5%) and Bulgaria (52%), more than half of people with a disability live in households that have difficulties in making ends meet.”

National budgets. The latest Center for Inclusive Policy brief is on analysis of national budgets. And Annie Sloman shares learnings and options for disability rights-based budgeting from Timor-Leste.

Aid fails in Uganda. The impact of aid cuts on refugees with disabilities.

“Weaponizing Corporate Virtue Signalling”

Meanwhile, in other news...

“Fight its legal department”... Robert Kingett shares his adventures in Weaponizing Corporate Virtue Signaling. He used a company's accessibility statement to skip over the usually-unhelpful customer service:

“The lesson is this: never fight a corporation's customer service department. Fight its legal department or its PR department. They don't care about your inconvenience, but they are terrified of a broken promise. And their Accessibility Statement is the biggest, most legally binding promise of all.”

Your next favourite newsletter... Celestine Fraser, who works with me on the Debrief, has launched her own newsletter Body Babble. Her first article goes into stammering pride, “When you stammer with someone”...

And in case you missed them, catch up on recent Debriefs:

Happy browsing! Woof woof,

Peter

Outro

Further reading. All the links from these curated editions go into the Debrief library, which now has over 6,700 links from over 170 countries. See below for contents from this month's update.

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Recent News

This update has 127 curated links from 41 countries and regions, organized across 38 subjects.

You can explore it organized by subject or by country.

Subjects

Countries

Acknowledgements

The photograph is by Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto via Getty Images. Thanks to Celestine Fraser for help with its selection.

And many thanks to everyone who shares links, news and reports – as well as the readers and organisations whose support makes this work possible.

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