Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. §§ 12101 et seq.) service animals are not required to be registered, nor are handlers required to carry special identification. Nevertheless, having your canine partner clearly marked as a service animal avoids a lot of questions and arguments when seeking public access. While the law certainly allows for unmarked service animals, I always make a point of ensuring that my service dog is wearing her working vest when out in public. This has saved me endless aggravation from over-zealous employees and curious (or envious) patrons who want to know why I have a "pet" with me.
The advantages (or lack thereof) for service dog ID cards is a lot less clear-cut. The following table contains some things to consider.
| Disadvantages | Advantages |
|---|---|
| By definition, ID cards only help if you've already received an access challenge that can't be resolved without some kind of appeal to authority. | Being able to provide "proof" may avoid the hassle of requesting police intervention or filing a lawsuit. |
| ID cards are only legally advantageous when used in states where the laws authorize specific organizations to issue them. Most owner-trainers could not obtain such IDs, which may be why federal law does not require them. | If you can get a state-approved ID card for your service animal, it may allow enforcement of rights at the state and local levels independently of the ADA. |
| Cards that are not issued by state-approved organizations are probably not valuable from a legal perspective. | Gatekeepers who are uninformed about the ADA but demand "proof" may be satisfied by a well-designed ID card. |
| Reputable service animal organizations will vouch for the training credentials of a service animal they have provided. Registries, whether state-sponsored or not, essentially rely on third-party affidavits. In all cases, the ID card is essentially an assurance from a private party that the dog is a service animal. | Regulations such as the Air Carrier Access Act (14 CFR Part 382) rely on markings and credible verbal assurance to determine the status of a service animal. A well-designed ID card may boost the credibility of that assurance. |
| Providing documentary evidence when not required by law may create an expectation among uninformed gatekeepers that all service dog teams should carry such things. This could make access harder for other teams in the future. | If showing a laminated card is all that is standing between an individual and a needed accommodation, sometimes expediency is more important than the moral high ground. |
On the whole, it is my considered opinion that service dog ID cards should only be used when required to enforce rights beyond those granted by the ADA. However, I also recognize that there are people who require additional ammunition beyond sheer force of personality to deal with routine access issues, and if a laminated card boosts their self-confidence or pacifies uninformed gatekeepers, then it's worthwhile.
With that in mind, I'd much rather that disabled individuals who feel they need an ID card are able to create one at no cost, other than printing and lamination. There are various "registries" that will sell you a laminated card with just as much legal standing as one that you print yourself, and that deeply offends my sensibilities. To correct this perceived injustice, I'm making a service dog ID card generator available to the service dog community at no charge.
Most of the fields should be self-explanatory. Just replace the defaults with your own information.
For the photo itself, I recommend uploading a good-quality image that has been cropped and scaled to be roughly square. You'll get best results from an image that has a geometry of 96x96 pixels (about 1.25" on each side) at a resolution of 96ppi (pixels-per-inch), and the photo's file size must be less than 2MB. Images which have unusual dimensions may throw off the formatting of the ID card; if that happens, just adjust your picture size and try again.
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