MS. NAYAR: I am Jani Nayar, and I represent SATH, Society for Accessible Travel and Hospitality. In the book that you have, it's written with our old name, which is Society for Advancement of Travel for the Handicapped. In 2000, we changed the name to be more politically correct, and so we changed to Society for Accessible Travel and Hospitality.
I just wanted to bring to the notice that one of the issues that has not been touched at all is to accommodate the service animals on cruise ships because that has become a very important issue because, most of the time, the cruise ships, for the relief areas, they provide closets which are not in the area where passengers are allowed. So, if one of the staff finds them there, it creates a lot of problems for people who are taking the animals.
And since it's a closet, it's a very small area. And the cleaning is done with ammonia, which really upsets the dogs' sensitivities of smell, and that issue has to be taken into consideration because just leaving it that people with disabilities cannot be discriminated and their service animals should be allowed on cruise ships. We need to look into it in more detail. And especially when the newer ships are being built, then they can really find a place in the design itself, the drawing board, to put that in. Thank you.
MS. [Jan] TUCK [BOARD CHAIR]: Thank you.
Anybody have any questions?
MR. [JIM] ELEKES [BOARD MEMBER]: Question. Jim Elekes, public member. Is your organization recommending a minimum size for the area in which to air either a guide dog or service animal?
MS. NAYAR: Not really. We don't have a minimum size, but the size should be enough for a dog because, usually, service animals are dogs, so they need space to move around a little bit. But you don't need a larger space. And the material that they use cannot be -- it should be they use grass or something similar to that because these animals are trained to use that kind of material.
So I know of instances when the dogs will not relieve themselves in that area because they are not used to it, and then they hold it as much as they can, and then they go wherever they are. When you've got to go, you've got to go.
(Laughter.)
MS. TUCK: Okay. Anything else?
MR. ELEKES: Thank you.
MS. TUCK: Thank you very much.
MS. NAYAR: Thank you.