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

by Allison Christina Gainer (Author), Damian Mellifont (Author)

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.