Bonnie Bergin - Assistance Dog User Council

Assistance Dog User Council

Bonnie was concerned that the assistance dog industry was top-heavy with program control, allowing for no input from the recipients receiving the dogs. She felt it needed balance. In 1993, she invited a group of individuals with disabilities who had assistance dogs to meet with her to resolve this imbalance. The goal was to empower dog recipients by developing a recipient organization whose objectives would be to develop a national network for assistance dog users advocating for access rights for all assistance dogs, mediating between programs and assistance dog recipients, and educating the general public abut the services provided by assistance dogs. Such an organization, Bonnie thought, would ensure that the recipients’ needs were met. It was provisionally named the Assistance Dog User Council (ADUC). A group of assistance dog partners attending this first meeting were determined that any such organisation should be user led, and thus formed their own organisation which is known as the International Association of Assistance Dog Partners (IAADP).

Simultaneously Bonnie created the Assistance Dog United Campaign, a program that provides vouchers to low-income individuals with disabilities to take to the program of their choice to get an assistance dog. Again, it was about empowering the dog user, in this case financially, to ensure their voice would be heard when applying for a dog. The concept of not charging for a dog, one that Bonnie supported initially by turning down money from participants, was revisited. Bonnie came to realize that refusing to take money from dog recipients decreases their empowerment at the program to whom they apply.