Invisible Leashes: Service Dogs, Institutional Barriers, and the Fight for Authentic Access in Higher...

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Allison Christina Gainer Damian Mellifont

Invisible Leashes

Service Dogs, Institutional Barriers, and the Fight for Authentic Access in Higher Education...

Allison Christina Gainer, Damian Mellifont

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Paperback

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English

Lived Places Publishing
30 September 2025

Disability: social aspects; Social work; Teaching of special educational needs

Series: Disability Studies

What does it mean to be disabled in a place that claims inclusion but prioritizes compliance over true community?

Invisible Leashes offers a powerful narrative that blends lived experience, institutional critique, and practical insights. Through the lens of a university staff member and Ed.D. student with a dynamic, non-apparent disability, Allison Christina Gainer reveals how classrooms, HR offices, research labs, and field placements become sites of both struggle and advocacy.

At the center of this story is a service dog, whose presence not only provides support but also disrupts hidden barriers and biases, symbolizing the visibility of disability in spaces designed for conformity rather than inclusion. With candor and urgency, Gainer interrogates the politics of disclosure, the emotional labor of self-advocacy, and the structural limitations of performative inclusivity in higher education.

A call for authentic accessibility and systemic change, this book highlights the need for policy reform and disability leadership rooted in lived experience.

Ideal for students, scholars, and practitioners in Disability Studies, Higher Education Administration, Educational Leadership, Social Work, Counselling, Human Resources, Organizational Leadership, Law, and Public Policy, as well as disability advocates committed to creating more inclusive institutions.

By: Allison Christina Gainer, Damian Mellifont
Imprint: Lived Places Publishing
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 7mm
Weight: 186g
ISBN: 9781915271693
ISBN 10: 191527169X
Series: Disability Studies
Pages: 132
Publication Date: 30 September 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Allison Christina Gainer, M.A., LAC, is an Ed.D. candidate, mental health counselor, higher education professional, and disability rights advocate whose research and lived experience center on service dog accessibility, inclusive education, and systemic change in higher education.