6. Has the person requesting the accommodation provided information that reasonably supports that the person seeking the accommodation has a disability?
Information About Disability May Include . . .
- Information confirming disability from a health care professional (e.g., physician, optometrist, psychiatrist, psychologist, physician’s assistant, nurse practitioner, or nurse). The information can be from any health care professional.
- A determination of disability from a federal, state, or local government agency.
- Receipt of disability benefits or services (Social Security Disability Income (SSDI)), Medicare or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for a person under age 65, veterans’ disability benefits, services from a vocational rehabilitation agency, or disability benefits or services from another federal, state, or local agency.
- Eligibility for housing assistance or a housing voucher received because of disability.
(Note that a determination that an individual does not qualify as having a disability for purposes of a benefit or other program does not necessarily mean the individual does not have a disability for purposes of the FHA, Section 504, or the ADA.)
Disability Determination
Some types of impairments are always considered a disability, including deafness, blindness, intellectual disabilities, partially or completely missing limbs or mobility impairments requiring the use of a wheelchair, autism, cancer, cerebral palsy, diabetes, epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, obsessive compulsive disorder, and schizophrenia.
This does not mean that other conditions are not disabilities. It simply means that in virtually all cases these conditions will be covered as disabilities. While an association will be unable to observe or identify some of these impairments, individuals with disabilities sometimes voluntarily provide more details about their disability than the association actually needs to make decisions on accommodation requests. When this information is provided, an association should consider it.
Documentation from the Internet
Some websites sell certificates, registrations, and licensing documents for assistance animals to anyone who answers certain questions or participates in a short interview and pays a fee. Under the Fair Housing Act, a housing provider may request reliable documentation when an individual requesting a reasonable accommodation has a disability and disability-related need for an accommodation that are not obvious or otherwise known. HUD has stated that such documentation from the Internet is not, by itself, sufficient to reliably establish that an individual has a non-observable disability or disability-related need for an assistance animal.
By contrast, many legitimate, licensed health care professionals deliver services remotely, including over the Internet. One reliable form of documentation is a note from a person’s health care professional that confirms a person’s disability and/or need for an animal when the provider has personal knowledge of the individual.