Disability, Accessibility & Equity

We aim to use Atala Prism to promote access and ensure equity for individuals with disabilities who use service animals.

Education, ethics, law, business consultant, developer, data management, blockchain development, team members have personal experience living with disability and in the training and use of service and emotional support animals.

[IMPACT]

The rights of individuals with disabilities to fair treatment and equal access is protected by federal law in the U.S. under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Many countries have similar laws. While several important forms of protection are written into federal law, it can be challenging for individuals with disabilities to ensure those rights are respected in the workplace, at school, in restaurants and the like. One reason is that federal and state law leaves matters in a grey area when it comes to accessing places with either service or emotional support animals. While federal law creates rights to access with a service animal so long as an individual has a medically documented disability and the animal (e.g., dog) provides a significant service in relationship to the medical condition, many disabilities related to diagnoses such as PTSD, diabetes, epilepsy and many others, are "invisible" conditions. As a result, individuals with animals that provide a disability service or emotional support often find that they are being questioned about whether or not the animal really needs to be with its owner when they enter places normally restricted for pets.

Many find it surprising to learn that there is no official federal or state registry for individuals who have service animals in the U.S. or many other countries. For individuals who have animals that provide some kind of support for a medical condition, it is not clear where the line is between a service animal that is for an ADA recognized disability and an emotional support (ES) animal. In fact, the line is grey, especially in cases such as PTSD, seizure, and other “invisible” conditions. This gives rise to a serious problem because more than 20 states in the U.S. and in other countries have passed laws imposing significant penalties (e.g., criminal misdemeanor and a $1000 fine) if an individual seeks access for an animal that does not fully meet the requirements in the ADA or other relevant law.

Our solution to the problem is to develop and implement an identification and record keeping system based on the Atala Prism DID for owners of service and ES animals. The system will enable owners of service and ES animals to keep their medical, training and other essential records securely, but in a form that empowers them to choose what information will be shared if they are questioned or denied access.

The ID and record keeping system will be developed in stages starting with an interactive website in a beta form that will provide several functions: (1) educational resources for owners of animals that provide service or emotional support, (2) educational resources for owners of business, administrators and teachers in schools and at universities, health care professionals who write support letters, etc. (3) straightforward explanations of the relevant federal and state legal standards, (4) a database for medical records documenting disability and animal training records to document service provided in relation to disability, and (5) a online registration system for owners and their animals and (6) and digital ID showing the owner and animal are in the online system. The website will be linked to Atala Prism via the APIs so that the ID and records will be held and processed securely in the Cardano system. In a further stage of the project, we propose to incorporate the system as a nonprofit DAO in the state of Wyoming that will be managed by and for the community of individuals having disabilities calling for the use of a service animal as well as those having medical conditions that warrant the use of emotional support animals.

In addition to focusing on challenges concerning inclusion and equity, we intend to address a secondary issue, which are the many difficulties involved in optimizing digital systems, such as dApps built for Cardano, so that they are widely accessbile for all individuals regardless of disability. Whether the underlying medical condition is impaired sight, impaired motor function, or some other condition, many individuals with disabilities find it difficult to design and implement online systems that are optimally accessible for individuals having a wide range of medical conditions giving rise to one or another form of disability. We plan to address this problem in our own work and, in doing so, to document the solutions that seem to particularly germane to the use of the Atala Prism ID system and Cardano dApps. As anyone who has used a digital wallet can attest, they would be practically impossible for many who have disabilities effectively to use without assistance. These sorts of problems need to addressed and overcome.

We have the team, experience and resources necessary to accomplish the goals established for the first phase of this project. For the second and third phases, team members plan to gain additional expertise as developers using the Atala Prism DID system. These members are approved for the next stage of the Atala Prism pioneer program. In addition, we aim to grow our team to provide additional expertise in the Atala Prism system. As such, we believe the primary challenge we face is to gain adoption of the ID and record system. In order to increase the odds of adoption, we are exploring partnerships with established providers of medical records for pets, such as are in widespread use by veterinarian practices. Our team has the marketing, sales and public relations expertise needed to grow the community of users and the legal expertise needed to create the DAO for individuals having disabilities.

[FEASIBILITY]

The ID and record keeping system will be developed in stages starting with an interactive website in a beta form that will provide several functions: (1) education for owners of animals that provide service or emotional support, (2) education for owners of business, administrators and teachers in schools and at universities, health care professionals who write letters, etc. (3) explanations of the relevant federal and state legal standards, (4) a database for medical records documenting disability and animal training records to document service provided in relation to disability, and (5) a registration and system for owners and their animals online and (6) and digital ID showing the owner and animal are in the system. In the second stage, the website will be linked to Atala Prism via the APIs so that the ID and records will be held and processed securely in the Cardano system. In a further stage of the project, we propose to incorporate the system as a nonprofit DAO in the state of Wyoming that will be managed by and for the community of individuals having disabilities calling for the use of a service animal as well as those having medical conditions that warrant the use of emotional support animals.

Phase 1: weeks 1-17

1. Research on disability law in US, EU, UK and a range of other jurisdictions.
2. Write and publish white paper on the use of DIDs to promote access and equity for individuals having disabilities
3. Create educational resources on disability law for owners of service and emotional support animals and related resources for businesses, schools, transportation to promote equity and access.
4. Develop and test beta version of website and app providing digital ID and database for medical records documenting disability, animal training records to document service provided in relation to disability, and online registration and system for owners and their animals.
5. Integrate website and app with Atala Prism DIDs via APIs
6. Implement marketing campaign for adoption of ID and record system
7. Incorporate a nonprofit DAO in the state of Wyoming for individuals having disabilities

Phase 2: weeks 18-34

1. Recruit a larger number of users for more rigorous testing of the Beta version of the website and dapp to ensure the systems scale.
2. Second stage in the integration of the website and dapp with the Atala Prism DIDs utilizing the system APIs.
3. Implement the second phase of the marketing campaign for increased adoption in the U.S. of DIDs and secure records by individuals having service and ES animals under federal and state laws.
4. Grow the membership in the DAO to support community of individuals with disabilities.

Phase 3: weeks 33-52

1. Implement the fully integrated website, dapp and Atala-Prism ID system to a larger public so that it serves all interested users.
2. Implement the third phase of the marketing campaign for full scale adoption of DIDs and secure records by individuals having service and ES animals in the EU, UK and other jurisdictions.
3. Grow the international membership in the DAO to support community of individuals with disabilities.

Budget for Phase 1:

1. Research on disability law in US, EU, UK and a range of other jurisdictions (60 hours, $4800)
2. Write and publish white paper on the use of DIDs to promote access and equity for individuals having disabilities (50 hours, $4000)
3. Create educational resources on disability law for owners of service and emotional support animals and related resources for businesses, schools, transportation to promote equity and access. (20 hours, $1400)
4. Develop and test beta version of website and app providing digital ID and database for medical records documenting disability, animal training records to document service provided in relation to disability, and online registration and system for owners and their animals (75 hours, $4500)
5. Integrate website and app with Atala Prism DIDs via APIs (30 hours, $1800)
6. Implement marketing campaign for adoption of ID and record system (110 hours, $8800)
7. Incorporate a nonprofit DAO in the state of Wyoming for individuals having disabilities (45 hours, $7500)

In Phase 2, we expect that the project will begin to generate a cash flow that will help offset approximately half of the costs of further development and testing. The primary forms of income will in sales and advertising the website and dApp for service dog products from third party vendors. In Phase 3, we expect that the income generated from the profit will be sufficient to cover all costs of marketing and scaling of the resources and growth of the community.

Project Team:

1. Jeffrey Downard, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Ph.D.. J.D., specialization in Ethics and Law, NAU (26 years)
2. David Watts, MA, Business Systems Consultant, Developer (7 years)
3. Sylvan Magnus, BA, Marketing and Sales (10 years)
4. Kristine Downard, BA, Education Resources (12 years) Medical Marketing and Sales, prior experience with Glaxo Welcome (8 years)
5. Craig Berman, BA, prior experience as VP for public relations, Amazon (20 years)
6. Abigail Downard, Illustrator/Artist, Service Animal Use and Training (8 years)
7. Sam Herring, BS, IT, Smart Contract Developer (recent graduate)
8. Stephen Lenhardt, Ph.D., prior experience as Senior Lecturer, Logic, NAU (12 years), currently working in data management (3 years)
9. Sarah Holcomb, J.D., CPA, Licensed Fiduciary, Business Law, Accounting, Taxes (20 years)

See LinkedIn profiles for team credentials.

[AUDITABILITY]

Deliverables:

1. Functioning Beta version of website with proper data fields.
2. Functioning Beta version of mobile app.
3. Integration of website and mobile app with Atala Prism DID system.
4. Commitment of code for integrating APIs to Github.
5. Incorporation of DAO in Wyoming as nonprofit by the end of Phase 1.
6. Commitment of code for operation of DAO to Github.
7. Implementation of Marketing Plan to grow the number of individuals involved in the project in Phase 2.
8. Recruitment of individuals having disabilities who use service or ES animals for testing of Beta versions of tools in Phase 1 is reasonable success. Recruitment of more than 50 is higher level success of the marketing plan.
9. Feedback on project from individuals testing the resources in the form of written evaluation matrices with scores of 1-10 on satisfaction with features in the website and dapp including system security and stability: average score of 3-5 is a mark of moderate success; score of 6-8 is high success; and score of 9-10 is very high success.

Primary indicators of success of the project in Phase 1:

1. Functioning Beta version of website with proper data fields: rating by users of 5-10 on written evaluation matrices.
2. Functioning Beta version of mobile app: rating by users of 5-10 on written evaluation matrices.
3. Review and approval of code for integrating APIs to committed to Github by outside developers
4. Successful completion of the process of incorporating of DAO in Wyoming as nonprofit by the end of Phase 2.
5. Review and approval of code for operation of DAO committed to Github by outside developers.
6. Recruitment of at least 20 individuals having disabilities who use service or ES animals for testing of Beta versions of tools in Phase 1 is reasonable success. Recruitment of more than 50 is higher level success of the marketing plan.
7. Feedback on project from individuals testing the resources in the form of written evaluation matrices with scores of 1-10 on satisfaction with features in the website and dapp including system security and stability: scores of 5-10 will count as success.
8. Feedback from individuals testing the resources on written evaluations as to their levels of confidence in having higher levels confidence in gaining access at the workplace, school and marketplace, restaurants, etc., when accompanied by service and ES animals.

This is a new proposal. It draws on ideas from a previously submitted but unfunded proposal for DIDs for Pet Owners. Members of this team are part of the Kepler SCS network, which has served as an incubator for a number of unfunded Catalyst proposals in Funds 6 and 7, including proposals for binding arbitration of smart contracts, a Cardano Climate DAO and a Spaceship Earth project for social and environmental sustainability.

SDG Rating

Disability and inclusion

Disability and Equity

Access to education

Equity in the workplace

Access to transportation

Civil Rights