It’s a sad truth that most people feel uncomfortable talking to someone with a disability, especially if their disability is visible. Unfortunately, this can leave disabled people feeling marginalized and excluded from social interactions, but a recent study suggests that assistance dogs may offer a helping paw.
Assistance dogs are trained to perform particular tasks to assist their human partners in their daily lives. However, previous research has shown that they can also provide their companions with strong emotional support too, becoming part of their social network. This is particularly important for people with disabilities who often encounter stigma and discrimination.
A team of researchers in South Australia recently examined the role of assistance dogs as social lubricants by following Mary, who has a visible disability, and her assistance dog, Cino. During the study, researchers observed Mary interacting with the community, either with or without her assistance dog present. The findings revealed that Mary experienced significantly more social acknowledgements from members of the public when Cino was present, supporting the concept of dogs as social facilitators.
“People look over the top of me with me being in the chair… I’ve had people end up sitting on my lap because they’ve just not even looked at where I am… Because it’s not the norm to see a dog in a shopping center… They realize that I’m there.”
The study also conducted in-depth interviews with Mary and a close member of her family to understand the experience of living with a visible disability and having an assistance dog. Analysis of these interviews complemented the observational findings, showing that Cino made a difference in Mary’s life by offering emotional support and increasing her social visibility, but also reflected broader societal challenges, including a lack of public understanding and support for assistance dogs.
The study’s lead researcher Dr Janette Young, from the University of South Australia, said, “the amount of difference that it made was striking.” However, she went on to explain that whilst assistance dogs are incredibly helpful, it is complicated by the public’s response.
Overall, the findings of this study contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the impact of assistance dogs on the lives of people with disabilities. Assistance dogs are not merely tools that disabled people can use, instead they are loving companions who positively impact their partner’s mental health and social inclusion, breaking down social barriers and fostering more inclusive social environments.
“It’s not going to be an instant fix… You are only going to get the response if you put in the work… You really have to weigh up for each event what you need to do, and which is the best for the dog… but at the end of the day what the dog does for me, definitely outweighs not having him.”
Dr Young explained, “the findings offer insights into how complex taking on an assistance dog is. It is not a quick warm fuzzy fix. Assistance dogs add complexity to already complex lived experiences, they visibilise people in ways that may be particularly disabling of themselves at times. For example, people whose disability makes them very sensitive to being “noticed” e.g., paranoid tendencies or diagnoses, or just people who are quite introverted as personalities. So, the benefits of an assistance dog need to be considered in light of each individual, their lives and needs.”
Mary’s narrative is the experience of only one person, but it demonstrates the value of assistance dogs beyond physical aid and highlights the need for greater public awareness about them.
When asked whether Dr Young thought these results could be generalized to other populations, she replied: ” I think the findings are extendable across all forms of assistance dogs – they show that assistance dogs are a particularly high response form of “aid” that can prompt far more visibility than non-living assistance devices.” When asked about future research that Dr Young would like to see, she explained that she would like more qualitative research into different disabilities and with different types of support species.
This study highlights the valuable ability assistance dogs have to promote the social visibility of people with visible disabilities and increase the number of social interactions they experience in their daily lives. The findings are supported by previous research into assistance dogs, as well as pet dogs, which shows that dogs can act as social facilitators, helping to breakdown social barriers and reduce social isolation in marginalized populations. However, increased visibility may be problematic for some people, and for this reason more research is needed to understand the effect of assistance dogs in a larger, more diverse, population.
Article by Dr. Carla J Hart: https://linktr.ee/carlajadehart
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