{"id":139436,"date":"2023-07-05T11:03:03","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T15:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=139436"},"modified":"2023-07-06T09:27:45","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T13:27:45","slug":"service-etiquette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2023\/07\/05\/service-etiquette\/","title":{"rendered":"Service etiquette"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Anjali Edwards, who graduated in 2022 from Wright State with a bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology, with her service dog, Teddy, one of the dogs featured in her new book, \u201cIt Takes Two to Make a Team: How Service Animals Can Change the Lives of their Handlers.\u201d (Photos by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n

Anjali Edwards wanted to educate the public \u2014 especially young people \u2014 on the etiquette of how to approach service animals and the people they help. So she interviewed eight people who use service animals, wrote their stories and illustrated a book with drawings of them and their animals.<\/p>\n

Then there was one more service dog\/person story to include: her own.<\/p>\n

The result by the 2022 Wright State University graduate is \u201cIt Takes Two to Make a Team: How Service Animals Can Change the Lives of their Handlers<\/a>,\u201d which became available in print in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people know about service dogs who are for veterans with PTSD and guide dogs for the blind or vision impaired,\u201d said Edwards, a Bellbrook resident who earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology<\/a> and a minor in business<\/a> from Wright State in December 2022. \u201cBut I wanted to raise awareness of other service dogs. I wanted to show that people of all different ages and backgrounds and many different types of disabilities can have a service dog.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards said it was also important to raise awareness of how to act around service dogs, and that it\u2019s important not to distract them while they are at work.<\/p>\n

Edwards\u2019 service dog is Teddy, a 5-year-old, 60-pound Labradoodle. Edwards has fibromyalgia, which causes chronic pain; postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, which affects blood flow and causes lightheadedness, and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which affects joints and connective tissues.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a multipurpose service dog,\u201d Edwards said of Teddy. \u201cHe\u2019s not specifically tasked to mitigate one disability. He helps with mobility. He picks up items, like a phone, wallet, car keys, his leash from the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards sometimes uses a motorized wheelchair, and Teddy can press the button that activates it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe also helps with panic attacks and anxiety,\u201d she added. \u201cHe provides deep pressure therapy. He applies weight to specific parts of my body that release chemicals to help me calm down.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same principle as when those with anxiety use a weighted blanket, she said, \u201cbut he\u2019s better than a blanket because he\u2019s soft and furry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Teddy is Anjali Edwards\u2019 multipurpose service dog who helps her with mobility, picking up items and deep pressure therapy.<\/p><\/div>\n

Edwards began working on the book three years ago, inspired by her Wright State research projects in the Applying Scientific Knowledge (ASK) program. One of her professors was William Romine, Ph.D., associate professor of biological sciences<\/a> and director of the Data Science for Education Laboratory.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the work in my lab is student-driven and Anjali\u2019s work is no exception,\u201d Romine said. \u201cAnjali began in my lab working on development of systems to detect changes in mental effort during studying using physiological sensor data. However, during my work with her, I learned that she was an advocate for students with disabilities, with a particular interest in students with service animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards worked in the Office of Disability Services<\/a> and with Raiders on the Autism Spectrum Excelling (RASE).<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough that program, I brought Teddy in and helped students,\u201d she said. \u201cThat solidified the idea that I wanted to work with people, especially those with autism.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the while she worked on the book, interviewing, writing, illustrating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a self-taught artist,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She published \u201cIt Takes Two to Make a Team\u201d through Kindle Direct Publishing, and it is available on Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is also an amazing artist,\u201d Romine said, \u201cso we decided that writing a fun and informative resource aimed at educating people of all ages about service animals would be a fitting application of her talents and passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards said the reason she chose Wright State was its reputation for accessibility. Wright State is ranked in the top three most-accessible schools in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed a campus that had working elevators \u2014 others had elevators that didn\u2019t necessarily work \u2013 and was super accessible,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n

She also praised Wright State for its service dog park.<\/p>\n

Edwards said having a service dog is not novel. \u201cWe\u2019re like the average person, we just happen to have a service dog,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

However, the combination of her three chronic illnesses can often leave her quite fatigued. A simple shopping outing can often turn into an ordeal that takes much longer than it would for most people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to pick up cereal, milk, eggs and be on my way. A five-minute trip like that for other people takes me 20 to 30 minutes because people stop and ask to pet my dog and ask what\u2019s wrong with me,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cSometimes if I feel like it. I will stop and answer questions. But if I am in a lot of pain or super tired, answering questions is not on my to-do list.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why she lets the book do her talking.<\/p>\n

Edwards said the book\u2019s target audience is children ages 8 to 12 but any age group can learn from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are the ages where kids recognize that there are people different from them, are willing to understand why and are interested in wanting to know why,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cThe book teaches children that this is the correct way to interact with a person with a service dog. It\u2019s a perfect time for reading about and understanding diversity and inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been really inspiring seeing her finish this and get it out for others to read,\u201d Romine said. \u201cI think it could make a big impact toward improving the public’s understanding of service animals and how they are utilized to make our world more accessible for people with disabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wright State psychology graduate Anjali Edwards was inspired to publish a book on service animals while working on a research project in the Applying Scientific Knowledge (ASK) program. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":139446,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,733,4299,748,2041,725,715,2063,18,746],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","category-alumni-profile","category-business","category-office-of-disability-services","category-home-news-sidebar","category-news","category-psychology","category-research","category-science-mathematics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139436"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139516,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139436\/revisions\/139516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}