State laws Rhode Island
From Service Dog Training
State laws in Rhode Island.
(2) Every person with a disability who has a guide dog or other personal assistive animal, or who obtains a guide dog or other personal assistive animal, shall be entitled to full and equal access to all housing accommodations provided for in this section, and shall not be required to pay extra compensation for the guide dog or other personal assistive animal, but shall be liable for any damage done to the premises by a guide dog or other personal assistive animal. For the purposes of this subsection a "personal assistive animal" is an animal specifically trained by a certified animal training program to assist a person with a disability to perform independent living tasks.
§ 39-2-13 Admission of guide dogs. – Any blind or deaf person, who uses the services of a seeing-eye guide dog, or personal assistance animal or a hearing-ear signal dog, clearly identified as such by a yellow harness and trained by a recognized training agency or school, may enter any public facility of any public utility or common carrier in this state, and when riding on any bus or other public utility or common carrier, engaged in the transportation of passengers or when riding in any elevator in this state where a landlord has the elevator operated for the use of his tenants and their visitors, or while in any building in this state open to the public, may keep the animal in his or her immediate custody; and the person shall not be required to pay any charge or fare, for or on account of the transportation thereon of him or herself and any dog so accompanying him or her, in addition to the charge of fare lawfully chargeable for his or her own transportation; provided, however, the provisions of this section shall not apply to railroad sleeping, parlor, club, buffet, or lounge cars.
§ 40-9.1-1.1 Definitions. – (a) "Guide dog" means a dog that has been or is being specially trained to aid a particular blind or visually impaired person.
(b) "Hearing dog" means a dog that has been or is being specially trained to aid a particular deaf or hard-of-hearing person.
(c) "Housing accommodations" means any real property or portion thereof that is used or occupied, or intended, arranged or designed to be used or occupied, as the home, residence or sleeping place of one or more human beings, but does not include any single-family residence the occupants of which rent, lease or furnish for compensation to more than one room therein. (d) "Personal assistance animal" means a dog that has been or is being trained as a guide dog, hearing dog or service dog.
(e) "Service dog" means a dog that has been or is being specially trained to aid a particular disabled person with a disability other than sight or hearing.
Overview
These laws protect the rights of service dog users in all public accommodations. However, it states that the dog must be from a service dog program and wear a yellow harness. Because the ADA provides greater protection to the service dog user the guidelines of the ADA supersede.
State laws may be superseded by the ADA. For the text of the ADA, click here. For general information about service dogs, click here. If you are looking for information on service dogs in places of business, check out our Information for businesses.
All opinions and summaries on this page are my own and should not be construed as legal advice. If you are in need of advice on the state or federal laws applicable to service dogs you should contact a lawyer. Last revised 9/26/2009
