“Oh, We Are Going to Have a Problem!”: Service Dog Access Microaggressions, Hyper-Invisibility, and Advocacy Fatigue

Psychiatric service dog placements are associated with better daily psychosocial functioning for military veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.

“…In light of our current findings, it may be that veterans find these negative public experiences sufficiently uncomfortable that they are deterred from attempting to go into the community; in fact, a veteran from this same sample shared that unwanted attention in public made them want to leave home even less (Nieforth et al, 2021). Unfortunately, this would be consistent with reports from the service dog community more broadly; in particular, service dog handlers with invisible disabilities are often burdened with the added challenges of advocating for their own public access rights in the face of public suspicion (Ballard et al, 2023;Graham et al, 2019;Mills, 2017;Zier, 2020). If this is indeed the case, it is critical to provide greater support to veteran handlers on how best to manage challenges in public and to redouble efforts to educate the general public and business owners on service dog laws and etiquette to promote greater inclusivity and accessibility.…”