Conroe (Main Office)
(936) 539-4500Huntsville
(936) 539-4500The Woodlands
(936) 539-4500Toll Free Number
(800) 346-6162Avery Eye Clinic is committed to making reasonable modifications in policies, practices, and procedures to permit the use of service animals by persons with disabilities. Service animals play an important role in ensuring the independence of people with disabilities, and it is therefore our policy to welcome into our facility any animal that is individually trained to assist a person with a disability. Avery Eye Clinic also takes very seriously its obligation to all patients to provide a sterile and uncontaminated environment that minimizes the risk of infection. In order to balance the above stated goals, Avery Eye Clinic adopts this policy.
What is a Service Animal?
Service animals include any dog or other therapy animal that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for individuals with disabilities, including physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. Service animals do not always have a harness, a sign, or a symbol indicating that they are service animals. A service animal is not a pet. Service animals assist people with disabilities in many ways, such as:
Requirements Regarding Service Animals
If the individual says yes to the first question, and explains the work or tasks that the animal is trained to perform, we will welcome the person and service animal into the facility without asking any additional questions about his or her service animal. We will not ask the individual questions about his or her disability. We will not ask the individual to show a license, certification, or special ID card as proof of their animal’s training. We will not ask an individual to use a specific entrance or exit to the facility.
Avery Eye Clinic has the right to exclude a service animal from its business if the animal is out of control and the handler does not take effective action to control it, or the animal is not housebroken. We will not exclude a particular service animal based on past experience with other animals or based on fear unrelated to an individual service animal’s actual behavior. Each situation will be considered individually. When there is a legitimate reason to ask that a service animal be removed, staff must offer the person with the disability the opportunity to receive services without the animal’s presence.