ADNZ CERTIFICATION TO GRANT PUBLIC ACCESS NOW BEEN PASSED
We are happy to announce that as of the 23rd December 2010, Assistance Dogs New Zealand has been given approval from Government, to certify assistance dogs in New Zealand. This means that our dogs and their users will have the same rights of access to public places - shops, malls and public transport that other service dogs - Guide Dogs, Hearing dogs, Mobility Dogs and Seizure Assist dogs in New Zealand receive.
This is great news and will enable us to make some huge strides in the services we are able to provide and our ability to provide well adjusted and settled dogs to our clients.
Our sincere thanks go out to all of you have supported us to date. We look forward to 2011 and your continued support.
This is great news and will enable us to make some huge strides in the services we are able to provide and our ability to provide well adjusted and settled dogs to our clients.
Our sincere thanks go out to all of you have supported us to date. We look forward to 2011 and your continued support.
Hunter and Sharna in their new puppy coats
Two of our Assistance Dogs in training
Two of our Assistance Dogs in training
Part of the journey for legal public access
At present Assistance Dogs in New Zealand do not have the legal public access afforded to other recognised service dogs which is required to provide relevant and appropriate training environments. This means that regardless of how well trained a dog is and how essential it may be to a child disabled by Autism, it is not legally allowed in public places such as supermarkets or hospitals. The Trust has been working towards changing this by raising the profile of Assistance Dogs. Here's a link to a segment that aired on TV One's Close Up in October 2009. Doug is one of the Assistance Dogs trained by Julie Hancox for an Autistic boy called Jesse.
Julie is confident that legal public access will be granted in the very near future - partly, we believe, as a result of the media coverage and because we are now candidates of Assistance Dogs International, who support those organisations that provide appropriate protocols, policies and structures to their oganisations.
Julie is confident that legal public access will be granted in the very near future - partly, we believe, as a result of the media coverage and because we are now candidates of Assistance Dogs International, who support those organisations that provide appropriate protocols, policies and structures to their oganisations.
The biological state of Impairment and the social identity of Disability
"An impairment is a bodily or psychological loss or abnormality which may cause suffering and which makes it difficult, dangerous or impossible to perform tasks, to participate in community life and to play social roles in the ways taken for granted by non- impaired people".
"A disability is a disadvantage experienced by a person as the result of the interaction between a real or alleged, permanent or intermittent impairment on the one hand, and the physical barriers, institutional structures, social policies and culltural attitudes on the other".
Beatson, P, 2000. The Disability Revolution in New Zealand, A Social Map, Massey University, Palmerston North
"A disability is a disadvantage experienced by a person as the result of the interaction between a real or alleged, permanent or intermittent impairment on the one hand, and the physical barriers, institutional structures, social policies and culltural attitudes on the other".
Beatson, P, 2000. The Disability Revolution in New Zealand, A Social Map, Massey University, Palmerston North
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