Blue Badge is proud to be a sponsor/partner of Assistance Dogs Australia (ADA), which trains and places unique dogs with Australians with unique situations.
Assistance Dogs Australia’s free-to-client assistance dogs provide independence, self-esteem, improved health and relationships to individuals and families.
Blue Badge is a Physical Disability Program Partner to this valuable organisation. These assistance dogs are trained to do tasks including, but not limited to:
- Retrieving dropped items
- Opening and closing doors, wardrobes and drawers
- Opening and retrieving items from the fridge
- Pulling washing out of the machine (front loaders only)
- Removing items of clothing such as socks and jumpers
- Retrieving the phone
- Alert barking if their owner falls out of their wheelchair or is in danger
- Pressing the buttons at the traffic lights and lifts
- Accompanying their owner on public transport
- Bracing when need to support their owner if they become unstable in their chair
- Emergency barking
- Delivering and retrieving items at shop counters
- Helping carry or pick up shopping items
A Physical Disability Assistance Dog has full public access rights, meaning they’re allowed in any public place* and on all public transport. It is illegal to refuse entry to a Assistance Dog.
People who receive a Physical Disability Assistance Dog are provided with a photographic identity badge as proof of Assistance Dog status, which they must take with them in public, and a Assistance Dog jacket for the dog.
Blue Badge Insurance pays a proportion of every current policy we have every month to Assistance Dogs Australia. It takes two years and $40,000 to train an Assistance Dog, so every little bit helps.
*The only exceptions are zoos, aquariums, sterile environments, food preparation areas and quarantine areas.