“Oh, We Are Going to Have a Problem!”: Service Dog Access Microaggressions, Hyper-Invisibility, and Advocacy Fatigue

Abstract

While service dogs, or dogs that have been trained to do work or provide tasks for a person with a disability, have gained legal access, social access remains a barrier. This chapter employs a critical, collaborative autoethnography to explore three themes related to negative social interactions surrounding service dogs and their handlers. Barely legal examines the impacts of microaggressions; hyper-invisibility explores how the presence of the service dog adds additional marginalization and social invisibility; and advocacy fatigue describes how continual advocacy and marginalization drains the service dog handler. Each theme is supported by a narrative vignette that illustrates the lived experience of the handler. The chapter concludes with an invitation to explore service dog handlers and social interactions.