Welcoming guide dogs, assistance animals and emotional support animals to events and meetings

Welcoming guide dogs, assistance animals and emotional support animals to events and meetings

Do I need to welcome guide dogs, assistance animals and emotional support animals to events and meetings?

In short, usually yes. Generally, guide dogs and assistance dogs are allowed into most settings. There must be an overwhelmingly strong reason to deny access to someone with a guide dog. For example, people with guide dogs can be denied entry to some controlled areas of a hospital, or to a taxi if the driver has a medical exemption certificate because of a severe allergy.

Emotional support animals (ESAs) are more complex. These are less common and the law is much less developed. However, as long as the animal is well behaved, it is unlikely to be lawful to deny access to an ESA where you would allow a guide dog.

For more information about how to decide whether to allow entry to an animal, see the resource ‘Assistance animals – Deciding what’s reasonable.’

How to welcome guide dogs, assistance animals and emotional support animals

In order to welcome all disabled employees and customers, businesses need to know how to design events and meetings so that people with guide dogs, assistance animals and emotional support animals can attend.

Possible adjustments include:

• Providing a water bowl
• Creating a space for the animal to sit by its owner
• Identifying a nearby outside space for the animal to go to the toilet
• Scheduling regular toilet breaks for the animal (if the event or meeting is going to last more than a couple of hours).

This list is not exhaustive. Specific individuals and animals may need different adjustments, or other adjustments as well as these.

What to do before the meeting or event

Plan well in advance. Some steps may take time to organise, and attendees need to be given enough notice of any changes.

• Ask all the attendees if they have any access needs or need any adjustments – and if they are planning to bring a guide dog, assistance animal or ESA. This will only be possible if you know who will be attending in advance. See above for a list of possible adjustments.
• Work with other teams if necessary. For example, if someone says they intend to bring an animal and you are unsure whether you can allow them to, you may need extra time to work with the individual and other relevant teams (such as facilities or health and safety teams) to work out your options.
• If you don’t know who will be attending in advance, prepare in advance for a dog or other animal to attend. For example, you could have a water bowl ready and identify a seat in the meeting room where there is enough space nearby for an animal to sit.
• If you know there is going to be an assistance animal at the meeting, ask attendees to avoid making excessively loud noises that might spook the animal. Guide dogs and assistance animals will be trained to ignore regular noises, but excessively loud noises may make their job harder. ESAs may not have been trained to ignore loud noises and other stimuli, so this is especially important to consider with ESAs.
• If you know an animal will be attending (or may be attending), let other attendees know. They may have allergies, phobias or cultural / religious taboos against certain animals. Ask them to let you know if they need adjustments, such as seating them further away from the animal or increasing ventilation.
• Ask the meeting chair to stick to the agenda and maintain agreed breaks, so that animals can toilet when there is time set aside for it.
• If it’s a small meeting the owner of the animal may want some time at the beginning of the meeting to remind fellow attendees about proper etiquette around their animal (such as not bothering it while it’s working). Ask them if they would like this, if they would like the chair to remind attendees, or if they don’t want any reminders. They may not want any extra attention, so ask before doing this.
• Ask facilities teams if there is going to be a fire drill or fire alarm test. These may cause a guide dog or assistance animal to try alert their owner, which can be disruptive and confusing for the animal and the owner. If possible, schedule the meeting or event at a time when these are not planned, or ask facilities teams to postpone the drill or test to a more convenient time.

At the meeting or event

• Identify yourself or a nominated person the animal’s owner can talk to about any issues. Unexpected issues may arise on the day, and disabled people should be told who to talk to about these issues to avoid unnecessarily prolonged disruption.
• Tell animals’ owners where to find water bowls and where there are seats with space for their animal to sit by them.
• Stick to scheduled breaks.
• If an animal does start being disruptive, talk to the owner and ask if they need anything to help address the behaviour. Let them know that you are there to help, but they may have to leave if the disruption becomes unacceptable.

Further information

Assistance Dogs UK

See Assistance Dogs UK’s range of Quick Guides and Resources for more information.

Business Disability Forum

• For general advice about inclusive meetings, see our resource ‘Hosting inclusive meetings: Communication checklists.’
• For general advice about inclusive events, see our resource ‘Building accessibility into business events.’
• Contact our Advice Service for guidance about specific situations.

This page is part of a series of resources on guide dogs, assistance animals and ESAs:

• What are guide dogs, assistance animals and emotional support animals?
• Assistance animals – Deciding what’s reasonable
• Supporting employees with guide dogs, assistance animals and emotional support animals
• Welcoming customers with guide dogs, assistance animals and emotional support animals.