Region Hannover is assistance dog friendly.
Steffen Krach, Regional President and patron of the campaign, assures: “Access rights for people with assistance dogs are enshrined in law – and yet access to public buildings cannot be taken for granted by people who are dependent on an assistance dog due to a physical or mental impairment. By joining the ‘Assistance Dog Welcome’ campaign, we are raising awareness of this and helping to break down barriers in everyday life. We are sending out a clear signal for inclusion and hope that many public institutions will follow suit!”
“Assistance dog welcome” – Regional President Steffen Krach, Therese Fleßner with her assistance dog Folke (photo, center) and Sylvia Thiel, Commissioner for People with Disabilities of the Hannover Region, at the campaign launch in front of the Regional House.
You can find the article from the city here.
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Hanover, 5.11.2024
Assistance dogs welcome!
Regional administration becomes “Assistance dog-friendly municipality” – Regional President Krach assumes patronage
Hanover region. Dogs are generally prohibited in public buildings that are open to the public. This does not apply to assistance dogs, but their owners still often encounter a lack of understanding or even rejection when they visit public facilities with their animal companions. Many people are not yet aware that, in addition to guide dogs for the blind, there are also assistance dogs for other limitations. The regional administration is now sending out a clear signal and becoming an assistance dog-friendly municipality. This makes it part of the nationwide “Assistance dog welcome” campaign by the Pfotenpiloten association, which is committed to raising awareness among public bodies, facilities and institutions for people with disabilities and their assistance dogs.
Regional President Steffen Krach has taken on the patronage: “For people who are dependent on an assistance dog due to a physical or mental impairment, access to public buildings is not always easy. By joining the ‘Assistance dog-friendly municipality’ campaign, we are raising awareness for people who are dependent on an assistance dog and helping them to break down barriers in everyday life. We are sending out a clear signal for inclusion and hope that many public institutions will follow it!”
Recognized assistance dogs are not dogs in the legal sense, but medical or participatory aids. They are specially trained to support people with various health impairments in everyday life – often without their disability being visible: assistance dogs can, for example, detect signs of an epilepsy attack at an early stage, warn diabetics of fluctuations in blood sugar or help people with mobility impairments with everyday tasks. They are also used in cases of autism, dementia, severe allergies or hearing loss and offer orientation and safety to the people affected. “Our main aim is to raise awareness of the fact that many people are dependent on an assistance dog without the reason for this being directly visible. Access rights for people with assistance dogs are enshrined in law – by joining the campaign, we are safeguarding the rights of people with disabilities and ensuring that they can participate even more actively in social life,” says Sylvia Thiel, Commissioner for People with Disabilities in the Hannover Region.
Therese Fleßner, a member of the Lower Saxony Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired and herself affected, has had her Labrador Folke by her side for over two years. “I feel much safer with Folke than with just the long cane. He is always wide awake, protects me from obstacles such as e-scooters lying around, shows me kerbs and stairs or looks for free spaces on the train.” Therese Fleßner has had good experiences so far when out and about with Folke. “But I’ve noticed that many people simply don’t know that assistance dogs can go anywhere you can go in street shoes. Education is important here,” explains Fleßner.
The affixing of the first “Assistance dog welcome” stickers at the main entrance to the Regionhaus marks the start of the assistance dog-friendly municipality. The Hanover Region will successively mark all regional buildings with stickers on the outside and inside, sensitize employees and approach other public institutions.
About the “Pfotenpiloten – Assistance dog-friendly community” campaign
“Pfotenpiloten” is a nationwide initiative that supports local authorities in identifying themselves as assistance dog-friendly. The campaign provides educational material, supports participating municipalities in raising awareness among employees and lists all assistance dog-friendly locations in the municipality on the interactive online map “DogMap”. To make the local commitment even more visible, the municipality receives an entry in the map of official assistance dog-friendly municipalities in Germany ( www.pfotenpiloten.org/assistenzhundfreundlich).
The “Assistance Dogs Welcome” campaign was made possible by funding from the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) and the Aktion Mensch.
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