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Nationwide Service Dog Training & Credential Verification
Resource Library
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) gives service dog handlers strong public access rights — and deliberately keeps the process simple and document-free.
For authoritative guidance, see the U.S. Department of Justice's official ADA resources at ada.gov, or consult an attorney about your specific situation.
Under Title II and Title III of the ADA, a service animal is a dog (or, in limited circumstances, a miniature horse) that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability. The task must be directly related to the person's disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support, without task training, do not qualify as service animals under the ADA — even if they are sometimes called “emotional support animals.”
This is the most important point: the ADA does not require service dogs to be certified, registered, licensed, or vested, and it does not require handlers to carry or present any form of identification card, paperwork, or proof. There is no official federal registry of service dogs. Any product or website claiming to offer “official ADA registration” is not describing a real legal requirement.
When it is not obvious that a dog is a service animal, staff may ask only two questions: (1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability, and (2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform. Staff cannot ask about the person's disability, require medical documentation, require a special ID card or training documentation, or ask the dog to demonstrate its task.
An ASDI credential is a voluntary record that a team completed ASDI training and evaluation. Some handlers choose to carry one for their own convenience or peace of mind. It is never legally required, and a business may not condition entry on seeing one — the two-question standard above still applies regardless of whether a handler has any credential at all.
A business may exclude a service animal if it is out of control and the handler does not take effective action to control it, if it is not housebroken, or if its presence would fundamentally alter the nature of the business. In those limited situations, the business must still offer the person with a disability the opportunity to obtain goods and services without the animal present.