Many individuals with disabilities use service animals to help
them fully engage in everyday life. Animals, particularly dogs, can
be trained to perform a wide range of tasks to help people with
disabilities, and the number of tasks these specially trained
animals can perform continues to grow. As a result, more applicants
and employees are requesting the use of service animals as a
reasonable workplace accommodation for a variety of different
disabilities. In addition, the growing popularity of emotional
support animals adds another layer of complexity to the issue of
animals in the workplace for employers. Because the law in this
area is somewhat murky, employers must use caution when addressing
service animal/emotional support animal accommodation requests and
need to be prepared to address the potential challenges that such
accommodations can entail.
