Our discussion forum explores new opportunities to expand barrier free access in Canada and USA for people with disabilities using a service or therapy animal for assistance.
Role of CRTASA
- CRTASA
- Canadian Registry of Therapy Animal & Service Animals (CRTASA) is a centralized registry operating in Canada & US since 2010. It registers service & therapy animals and extends annual memberships to verified applicants that also receive a valid CRTASA Photo ID Card to readily confirm their rightful ownership of their official animal to a place of business. Service animals registered by CRTASA include guide dogs and other trained species (eg. helper monkeys, miniature seeing guide horses, etc..) CRTASA does not certify service animals - it only registers those already officially trained/certified to assist their owner with a disability. The standardized CRTASA Photo ID Card alleviates past confusion that variety of ID Cards (issued by different states, provinces and training facilities) posed for businesses across North America - many of whom were unfamiliar with the issuing body. CRTASA members also benefit from point of purchase discounts on animal products/services extended by participating CRTASA corporate fellows. For details Email: info@crtasa.com or visit www.crtasa.com
December 30, 2010
Help Support Monkey Helpers for People with Some Form of Paralysis - Your Donation is Much Needed!
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your dedication to our monkey helpers and recipients' lives!
Sincerely,
Megan Talbert- Executive Director
P.S. A gift made online or post marked by December 31st is tax deductible for 2010.
Make your online year-end gift now- just click here.
Here's a few examples of how your donation can help:
$50 can provide treats like peanut butter for training
$100 can supply one monkey with their favorite fleece blankets and toys
$350 can help us with plane tickets for staff trainers to travel to the home of a recipient for a placement or a follow-up evaluation
$500 can assist with home and equipment modifications made in a new placement
$1,200 can buy a cage for a monkey at a new or active placement home
$25 can provide fresh fruit for our monkeys at the Monkey College
2010 has been a year of many milestones, including completing our 150th placement and increasing our service area to include two new states- Vermont and Colorado.
We have enjoyed sharing each one of our successes with you, and look toward 2011 in anticipation of helping even more of the 6 million people living with some form of paralysis. We turn to you one more time this year knowing you share this goal with us.
There is still time to make a contribution. Together with your help, our team of professionals and volunteers can create brighter futures filled with independence, companionship, and joy.
Thank you for your dedication to our monkey helpers and recipients' lives!
Sincerely,
Megan Talbert- Executive Director
P.S. A gift made online or post marked by December 31st is tax deductible for 2010.
Make your online year-end gift now- just click here.
Here's a few examples of how your donation can help:
$50 can provide treats like peanut butter for training
$100 can supply one monkey with their favorite fleece blankets and toys
$350 can help us with plane tickets for staff trainers to travel to the home of a recipient for a placement or a follow-up evaluation
$500 can assist with home and equipment modifications made in a new placement
$1,200 can buy a cage for a monkey at a new or active placement home
$25 can provide fresh fruit for our monkeys at the Monkey College
November 20, 2010
What does having a service animal mean to you?
Welcome folks!
As you know service and therapy animals are no longer limited to dog guides or the typical seeing eye dogs in society. Despite the latest changes to the ADA taking effect on March 15, 2011 in the USA - many people with different disabilities use other species of a service animal including Helper Monkeys and Miniature Guide Dogs to assist them with their daily living activities.
We are very interested in learning about people's different experiences of having a service animal - regardless of the breed or species! It can be a positive story about how the animal enhanced your or someone you know life or it can be about an experience where your or your child's right of entry to a public place with their service animal was denied and what steps were taken to remedy the situation.
Hence if you, or your child or another member of your family use a service animal or a therapy animal to lead a more independent life - then tell us your story to bring awareness to the remarkable value these animals provide to people with disabilities.
Your story will also be considered for our upcoming CRTASA e-newsletter - so make sure you include your own photos in your submission that you want to share publicly with our readers in both Canada and the USA.
Together we can help open society's doors and minds to people with disabilities and their service animals.
Looking to Become a Corporate Accessibility Champion?
Our company Canadian Registry of Therapy Animals and Service Animals is looking for new corporate leaders, businesses, retailers and service providers across Canada and USA to become Corporate Accessibility Champions.
Set yourself as a leader of Accessibility in your community when you extend at points of purchase discounts to our members with service and therapy animals using their CRTASA Photo ID Card while shopping at your stores.
Contact us directly at corporatesponsorship@crtasa.com about our various levels of fellowship programs and unique collaboration opportunities.
You become a driver of change when you join CRTASA!
November 15, 2010
Do You Have a Service Animal Trained to Assist Your Child with Autism?
Assistance and guide animals have proven to be a remarkable aid to people with disabilities and special needs. Guide dogs trained to provide assistance to children with autism are no exception!
Tell us your story and how a special skills dog changed the life of someone you know.
Tell us your story and how a special skills dog changed the life of someone you know.
November 13, 2010
Interested in joining the Global Phenomenon?
Help "Fire the Grid" on November 11, 2011 - visit website for details: www.FIRETHEGRID.org
Fire the Grid Newsletter
November 11, 2010
On November 11, 2010, "Fire the Grid" launched their brand new website with considerable new information from their magnificent beings of Light, including the Remember code and a new 10 minute meditation in preparation for the main event in 2011.
Below you will find a forward letter with a brief overview of the final phase of this global project. If it speaks to your heart, please share it with everyone you know. We are excited and revitalized for this final stretch as together, we co-create a new and better world!
---
A Message of Hope from the founder of "Fire the Grid"
This is a most exciting time for humanity. Change is upon us and we as Divine creative beings can now consciously choose the direction in which we turn. This is the first time in the history of our humanity that human kind will consciously choose this direction, the first opportunity to vote collectively for that which we desire to see. The time of that great change is upon us. We are powerful co-creators and we have an unprecedented occasion to steer our ship of desire toward the path we intend.
As One great critical mass, we feel truth in our Divine Beingness and we raise our hands and say yes to vital change. Yes to a better harmonious plan for abundance and yes to our personal ability to dream this world into being. One loving heart creates wonders when directed with the purest intentions. Many hearts aligned create significant change for us all.
In 2007, we defined our intentions to the world. There are enough of us here now willing to do what it takes to create this beautiful new world. Millions of us defined ourselves as conduits for this change. Then in 2009, we choose to be present with this truth, acknowledging our co-creative ability. In defining this truth, we agreed that being present and accountable was the way to becoming the “I am” that creates change. Each of us stepping forward and being accountable for our own heart and mind creates a mass of humans such as the world has never seen. This collective group of humans have defined defined their intentions with accountability for their actions and now look to become the change that is inevitable.
Now as we become one field, we shall manifest from the heart via the mind. We plant our seeds of desire for a world of peace, abundance and joy for every living being in form. We remember our place in the universe and our ability to co-create as we gather for one more hour to set our loving intentions and lift the energy field of this planet. In knowing that each “I am” helps to create a force field of “we can” set with the intention to make change happen. We become one field for one hour so that we may get a jump start on this new time and begin it at the most advantageous starting point: the highest human frequency of joy and love with hope and optimism for a more splendid way of being.
Humanity is ready and there are indeed enough of us to propel this earthly field into its true potential. This earth sustains us and it is time to be in gratitude for all that we have and for all that is yet to come. What do we have to lose?
In remembering our true essence of Divinity in form, vote consciously and joyfully for abundance and make it so. We come to the well of life not with the thimble of the past but with the largest buckets we can carry. We open ourselves to Divine truth, to the simple delight in being.
On November 11, 2011 at 11:11 GMT we choose to be defined as one collective field of Divine beings; we choose to be present with ourselves and with each other and we choose to become the great manifesting field of energy which is our birthright.
Join us as we form a collective group of human energy to once again Fire the Grid. Become part of a project by the people for the people. Choose initially to create a healthy vibrant planet in which to share experiences, then choose to add your personal joy to that field. One hour of open heart loving intention is all that is needed. No money necessary, no groups to join. We simply choose to see our collective power of manifestation, unite as one field and become our greatest truth.
Make your vote count, make your voice heard. Join the joyride and unite in Love to fire the grid and help catapult us into our highest potential for the dawn of this new time. Become the beacon of light your Soul intended you to be, for yourself, for each other and for our collective future. Remember who you are.
I remember.
Samoiya Shelley Yates
www.FIRETHEGRID.org
November 11, 2010
Calling on All Major Retailers and Service Providers in Canada and USA!
Are you a Retailer or Service Provider in Canada or the USA? Consider becoming a CRTASA Corporate Fellow and become an Accessibility Driver for change. Visit our Corporate Fellowship post for more details on fellowship benefits and program details: http://www.crtasa.com/fellowship-program.php
Together we can open society's doors and minds!
Together we can open society's doors and minds!
Enhance your CRTASA Membership Experience!
Greetings fellow CRTASA members with service and therapy animals. We are committed to provide valuable benefits and savings to our CRTASA members with working animals whenever they use their CRTASA Photo ID Card in public.
To enhance your CRTASA membership experience please tell us what membership services interest you and why! Feel free to identify which businesses you would like to extend at point purchase discounts to you when purchasing items or services for your therapy or service animal.
We operate both in CANADA and USA!
To enhance your CRTASA membership experience please tell us what membership services interest you and why! Feel free to identify which businesses you would like to extend at point purchase discounts to you when purchasing items or services for your therapy or service animal.
We operate both in CANADA and USA!
November 9, 2010
Do you use a Helper Monkey or Miniature Guide Horse for assistance?
If you use a trained helper monkey or miniature guide horse to assist you with your daily activities based on special needs - or another species of animal - please share your experience both from the point of how this animal changed your life for the better and also how people react to you upon seeing your service animal.
Lets start the discussion to make others aware of the valuable service these incredible animals can provide when trained in a specific area of assistance!
Lets start the discussion to make others aware of the valuable service these incredible animals can provide when trained in a specific area of assistance!
November 8, 2010
WOW! New Service Animal Definition Violates Rights!
Definition of "Service Animal" was changed on July 23, 2010.
On Friday, July 23, 2010, Attorney General Eric Holder signed final regulations revising the US Department’s ADA regulations, including its ADA Standards for Accessible Design. The official text was published in the Federal Register on September 15, 2010. Revisions on how a service animal shall be defined are as follows:
This final rule was published in the Federal Register on September 15, 2010 - and will come into effect in six months on March 15, 2011. What this ruling means is that the government has defined a “Service Animal" as any dog that is individually trained to provide assistance or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. While other species of animals regardless of being wild or domestic species, trained or untrained, are not to be considered service animals any more for the purposes of this definition.
(Note crafty caveat allowing for miniature horses to be sometimes considered in some instances - see below?!?!)
The new definition also speaks to the work or tasks performed by a service animal that must be directly related to the handler´s disability. Examples of work or tasks include, but are not limited to, assisting individuals who are blind or have low vision with navigation and other tasks, alerting individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing to the presence of people or sounds, providing non-violent protection or rescue work, pulling a wheelchair, assisting an individual during a seizure, alerting individuals to the presence of allergens, retrieving items such as medicine or the telephone, providing physical support and assistance with balance and stability to individuals with mobility disabilities, and helping persons with psychiatric and neurological disabilities by preventing or interrupting impulsive or destructive behaviors.
The crime deterrent effects of an animal´s presence and the provision of emotional support, well-being, comfort, or companionship have been excluded as these tasks are not deemed to constitute work or tasks for the purposes of the new definition.
WOW! Can this decision be anymore injurious and insulting to the mental health movement in our modern society?
What about the US government's promise to promote personal safety of our vulnerable members in our society? Under this new legislation even service dogs that help provide some sense of protection and feelings of security and safety not to mention emotional support for a person with a disability have been eliminated.
Are we so naiive to assume that the criminal element will not take advantage of this decision?
On another front - this new legislation discounts the value of emotional support a service animal provides for someone with a disability. Since when has emotional support and comfort become deemed a luxury rather than necessity especially for a person with a disability?
Can ignorance of non-visible disabilities be any less blatant by this new policy and those that ruled in its favour?
Key changes include the following:
1. Only dogs will be recognized as service animals.
2. Service animals are required to be leashed or harnessed except when performing work or tasks where such tethering would interfere with the dog's ability to perform.
3. Service animals are exempt from breed bans as well as size and weight limitations.
4. Though not considered service animals, businesses are generally required to accommodate the use of miniature horses under specific conditions.
It will not take long for this caveat to be overturned with a discrimination prima facie case based on disability by someone using a helper monkey or another type of domestic intelligent animal that has been trained and certified to assist with specific needs.
However, what will be the financial, temporal, emotional and physical costs to everyone concerned?
Oddly enough, during the period of this regulatory reform taking effect, the existing service animals of all species continue to be covered under the ADA regulations.
How generous of them to throw the disabled community a few morsels of time to adjust and prepare for a life alterting change. Did these legislators really think things through properly?
After all, once this legislation takes effect on March 15m 2011 - what is a person with a service animal other than a guide dog expected to do with it...Give it away? Discard it like a piece of refuse that is no longer of value? Of course not. They can simply continue to enjoy the assistance from their service animal in private.
Tell this news to a 17 year old boy that became a quadraplegic in a car accident two years ago, and who after multiple surgeries, exhausing months of physical therapy not to mention emotional recovery regained a new lease on his life when he started to work with his new assistane helper monkey. Try telling this young man that after getting a taste for a more indendent life he now will not be able to be accompanied with his helper monkey into a public place.
How is this any different from telling a person that is blind to leave their white cane outside the store while they come inside to shop.
That's right! The expectation is that these people with disabilities using service animals other than guide dogs are to just stay at home incubated behind their four walls where their service animals can continue to assist them. However - not in a public forum!
Has society really regressed into the early 1900's where people with disabilities are not to be seen or heard in public anymore?
It is quite evident that this new legislation set the new precedent of moving our disabled communities back inside their fortress where they are granted limited rights in private!
What happened to people with disabilities having the freedom to choose about their care and to lead more independent lives by going to work, doing their shopping, visiting friends, and leading full social lives?
This new US legislation is an insult not only to society's intelligence but on an ethical level as it violates human civil rights and freedom of choice!
These policy and legislator that allowed this new ADA revision to pass have clearly NOT thought things through or they have and they just don't give a hoot. Regardless, shame on them and on whoever supports this move!
Existing policies that were clarified or formalized include the following:
1. Dogs whose sole function is “the provision of emotional support, well-being, comfort, or companionship” are not considered service dogs under the ADA.
2. The use of service dogs for psychiatric and neurological disabilities is explicitly protected under the ADA.
3. “The crime deterrent effects of an animal's presence” do not qualify that animal as a service animal and “an animal individually trained to provide aggressive protection, such as an attack dog, is not appropriately considered a service animal.”
These previously existing policies are already in effect. For additional information about this legislation visit the following links:
Final Rule for Title II:http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleII_2010/reg2_2010.html
Title II Fact Sheet:http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/factsheets/title2_factsheet.html
Text of Revised Title II Regulation:http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleII_2010/titleII_2010_withbold.htm
Final Rule for Title IIIhttp://www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleIII_2010/reg3_2010.html
Title III Fact Sheethttp://www.ada.gov/regs2010/factsheets/title3_factsheet.html
Text of Revised Title III Regulation:http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleIII_2010/titleIII_2010_withbold.htm
On Friday, July 23, 2010, Attorney General Eric Holder signed final regulations revising the US Department’s ADA regulations, including its ADA Standards for Accessible Design. The official text was published in the Federal Register on September 15, 2010. Revisions on how a service animal shall be defined are as follows:
This final rule was published in the Federal Register on September 15, 2010 - and will come into effect in six months on March 15, 2011. What this ruling means is that the government has defined a “Service Animal" as any dog that is individually trained to provide assistance or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. While other species of animals regardless of being wild or domestic species, trained or untrained, are not to be considered service animals any more for the purposes of this definition.
(Note crafty caveat allowing for miniature horses to be sometimes considered in some instances - see below?!?!)
The new definition also speaks to the work or tasks performed by a service animal that must be directly related to the handler´s disability. Examples of work or tasks include, but are not limited to, assisting individuals who are blind or have low vision with navigation and other tasks, alerting individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing to the presence of people or sounds, providing non-violent protection or rescue work, pulling a wheelchair, assisting an individual during a seizure, alerting individuals to the presence of allergens, retrieving items such as medicine or the telephone, providing physical support and assistance with balance and stability to individuals with mobility disabilities, and helping persons with psychiatric and neurological disabilities by preventing or interrupting impulsive or destructive behaviors.
The crime deterrent effects of an animal´s presence and the provision of emotional support, well-being, comfort, or companionship have been excluded as these tasks are not deemed to constitute work or tasks for the purposes of the new definition.
WOW! Can this decision be anymore injurious and insulting to the mental health movement in our modern society?
What about the US government's promise to promote personal safety of our vulnerable members in our society? Under this new legislation even service dogs that help provide some sense of protection and feelings of security and safety not to mention emotional support for a person with a disability have been eliminated.
Are we so naiive to assume that the criminal element will not take advantage of this decision?
On another front - this new legislation discounts the value of emotional support a service animal provides for someone with a disability. Since when has emotional support and comfort become deemed a luxury rather than necessity especially for a person with a disability?
Can ignorance of non-visible disabilities be any less blatant by this new policy and those that ruled in its favour?
Key changes include the following:
1. Only dogs will be recognized as service animals.
2. Service animals are required to be leashed or harnessed except when performing work or tasks where such tethering would interfere with the dog's ability to perform.
3. Service animals are exempt from breed bans as well as size and weight limitations.
4. Though not considered service animals, businesses are generally required to accommodate the use of miniature horses under specific conditions.
It will not take long for this caveat to be overturned with a discrimination prima facie case based on disability by someone using a helper monkey or another type of domestic intelligent animal that has been trained and certified to assist with specific needs.
However, what will be the financial, temporal, emotional and physical costs to everyone concerned?
Oddly enough, during the period of this regulatory reform taking effect, the existing service animals of all species continue to be covered under the ADA regulations.
How generous of them to throw the disabled community a few morsels of time to adjust and prepare for a life alterting change. Did these legislators really think things through properly?
After all, once this legislation takes effect on March 15m 2011 - what is a person with a service animal other than a guide dog expected to do with it...Give it away? Discard it like a piece of refuse that is no longer of value? Of course not. They can simply continue to enjoy the assistance from their service animal in private.
Tell this news to a 17 year old boy that became a quadraplegic in a car accident two years ago, and who after multiple surgeries, exhausing months of physical therapy not to mention emotional recovery regained a new lease on his life when he started to work with his new assistane helper monkey. Try telling this young man that after getting a taste for a more indendent life he now will not be able to be accompanied with his helper monkey into a public place.
How is this any different from telling a person that is blind to leave their white cane outside the store while they come inside to shop.
That's right! The expectation is that these people with disabilities using service animals other than guide dogs are to just stay at home incubated behind their four walls where their service animals can continue to assist them. However - not in a public forum!
Has society really regressed into the early 1900's where people with disabilities are not to be seen or heard in public anymore?
It is quite evident that this new legislation set the new precedent of moving our disabled communities back inside their fortress where they are granted limited rights in private!
What happened to people with disabilities having the freedom to choose about their care and to lead more independent lives by going to work, doing their shopping, visiting friends, and leading full social lives?
This new US legislation is an insult not only to society's intelligence but on an ethical level as it violates human civil rights and freedom of choice!
These policy and legislator that allowed this new ADA revision to pass have clearly NOT thought things through or they have and they just don't give a hoot. Regardless, shame on them and on whoever supports this move!
Existing policies that were clarified or formalized include the following:
1. Dogs whose sole function is “the provision of emotional support, well-being, comfort, or companionship” are not considered service dogs under the ADA.
2. The use of service dogs for psychiatric and neurological disabilities is explicitly protected under the ADA.
3. “The crime deterrent effects of an animal's presence” do not qualify that animal as a service animal and “an animal individually trained to provide aggressive protection, such as an attack dog, is not appropriately considered a service animal.”
These previously existing policies are already in effect. For additional information about this legislation visit the following links:
Final Rule for Title II:http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleII_2010/reg2_2010.html
Title II Fact Sheet:http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/factsheets/title2_factsheet.html
Text of Revised Title II Regulation:http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleII_2010/titleII_2010_withbold.htm
Final Rule for Title IIIhttp://www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleIII_2010/reg3_2010.html
Title III Fact Sheethttp://www.ada.gov/regs2010/factsheets/title3_factsheet.html
Text of Revised Title III Regulation:http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleIII_2010/titleIII_2010_withbold.htm
Service Animals are not just guide dogs
Totally correct! While guide and assistance dogs provide a valuable service to their owners with disabilities. Society and policy makers cannot discount the many other assistance animals like miniature guide horses and helper monkeys that provide independence for people with disabilities.
As such having one standard for Photo ID Cards that CRTASA now offers is the logical approach and new trend to help people with disabilities validate their rightful ownership of an officially trained service animal that is not the typical seeing eye-dog.
As such having one standard for Photo ID Cards that CRTASA now offers is the logical approach and new trend to help people with disabilities validate their rightful ownership of an officially trained service animal that is not the typical seeing eye-dog.
November 7, 2010
Welcome to CRTASA's Blog!
Are you a person with a disability using a service animal for assistance? Visit us at www.crtasa.com for more information on our membership benefits, savings and details about how to obtain your Photo ID Card for your animal.
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