2020 Georgia Code
Title 30 - Handicapped Persons
Chapter 4 - Rights of Persons With Disabilities
§ 30-4-2. Right to Equal Public Accommodations; Right to Be Accompanied by Guide Dog or Service Dog

1. Blind persons, persons with visual disabilities, persons with physical disabilities, and deaf persons are entitled to full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges on all common carriers, airplanes, motor vehicles, railroad trains, motor buses, streetcars, boats, or any other public conveyances or modes of transportation and at hotels, lodging places, places of public accommodation, amusement, or resort, and other places to which the general public is invited, subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law and applicable alike to all persons.
2. 1. Every totally or partially blind person shall have the right to be accompanied by a guide dog, and every physically disabled person and every deaf person shall have the right to be accompanied by a service dog, especially trained for the purpose, in any of the places listed in subsection (a) of this Code section without being required to pay an extra charge for the guide or service dog; provided, however, that he or she shall be liable for any damage done to the premises or facilities by such dog. In addition, if such totally or partially blind person, physically disabled person, or deaf person is a student at a private or public school in this state, such person shall have the right to be accompanied by a guide dog or service dog subject to liability for damage as provided in the preceding sentence. The guide dog or service dog must be identified as having been trained by a school for seeing eye, hearing, service, or guide dogs.
   2. Every person engaged in the training of a guide dog or service dog for the purpose of accompanying a person as provided in paragraph (1) of this subsection shall have the same right to be accompanied by such dog being trained as the totally or partially blind person, deaf person, or physically disabled person has under paragraph (1) of this subsection, so long as such trainer is identified as an agent or employee of a school for seeing eye, hearing, service, or guide dogs.
   3. Every person engaged in the raising of a dog for training as a guide dog or service dog for the purpose of accompanying a person as provided in paragraph (1) of this subsection shall have the same right to be accompanied by such dog being raised for training as the totally or partially blind person, deaf person, or physically disabled person has under paragraph (1) of this subsection, so long as:
      1. Such dog is being held on a leash and is under the control of the person raising such dog for an accredited school for seeing eye, hearing, service, or guide dogs;
      2. Such person has on his or her person and available for inspection credentials from the accredited school for which the dog is being raised; and
      3. Such dog is wearing a collar, leash, or other appropriate apparel or device that identifies such dog with the accredited school for which such dog is being raised.
3. Every totally or partially blind person operating a vending stand shall have the right to be accompanied by a trained guide dog on the entire premises of his or her vending operation.

(Ga. L. 1955, p. 155, § 1; Ga. L. 1975, p. 1639, § 1; Ga. L. 1980, p. 1131, § 1; Ga. L. 1991, p. 616, § 1; Ga. L. 1994, p. 1405, § 1; Ga. L. 1995, p. 10, § 30; Ga. L. 1995, p. 1302, § 16; Ga. L. 1998, p. 512, § 1; Code 1981, §30-4-2, as redesignated by Ga. L. 2000, p. 1350, § 1; Ga. L. 2007, p. 316, § 1/HB 366.)

- Duty of operators of motor vehicles to yield right of way to blind pedestrians, § 40-6-94.

Reservation of special parking places for persons with disabilities, § 40-6-220 et seq.

Duty of carriers to receive passengers, §§ 46-9-130,46-9-131.

- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1995, "persons with visual disabilities" was substituted for "visually persons with disabilities" near the beginning of subsection (a).

- Ga. L. 2000, p. 1350, § 1, redesignated former Code Section 30-4-2 as present Code Section 30-4-3.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Denial of access to lodging.

- Based on the innkeeper's refusal to provide lodging for the disabled individual and the individual's service dog, the individual's proposed amended complaint stated valid claims for damages under O.C.G.A. §§ 30-4-2 and43-21-3; the amendment was not futile, and leave to amend pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a) was granted. Amick v. BM & KM, Inc., 275 F. Supp. 2d 1378 (N.D. Ga. 2003).

Cited in Woodruff v. Kroger Co., 475 F. Supp. 147 (M.D. Ga. 1979).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 14 Am. Jur. 2d, Carriers, § 164. 40A Am. Jur. 2d, Hotels, Motels, and Restaurants, §§ 52, 54.

- Validity, construction, and application of § 302 of Americans with Disabilities Act (42 USCS § 12182), prohibiting discrimination on basis of disability by owners or operators of places of public accommodation, 136 A.L.R. Fed 1.

Web site as "public accommodation" for purposes of federal or state civil rights statutes, 7 A.L.R.7th 1.