VADS · Verified Assistance Dog System
VADS gives your staff one instant, auditable answer: is this team certified by a recognised charity? No paperwork to judge. No personal data to hold.
VADS verifies. Vera certifies.
How the check works
VADS sits between the operator and the charity that certified the team. It confirms a match and records the check. It never becomes the record.
Your staff or booking flow run a check using two values the handler provides: a microchip number and a one-time match token.
The query is routed to the recognised certifying charity that holds the authoritative record. The charity stays the source of truth.
The microchip is matched exactly against the charity-held record. An exact match, not a judgement call. No scoring, no guesswork.
VADS returns a clear PASS or a No match. Every lookup writes to an append-only audit trail your compliance team can rely on.
Privacy by architecture
VADS was designed around the Minimum Viable Compliance Data principle. The check needs almost nothing about the person, so it holds almost nothing about the person.
The handler is a person, not a data set. VADS returns a yes or a no match against a chip number the charity already holds. Identity, health and disability information stay with the certifying charity in Vera, under their control.
The problem VADS solves
When a team cannot be confirmed on the spot, people are turned away. Not from malice, but from doubt. VADS removes the doubt and gives staff something they can stand behind.
Source: ADI and IGDF, Paws for Access Report, 2025.
For operators
One check, the same answer every time, with a record behind it. VADS gives frontline teams confidence and gives compliance teams evidence.
Staff get a clear PASS or No match in seconds, so nobody has to interpret a document or make an awkward judgement call.
Every lookup is logged to an immutable, append-only trail. When a decision is questioned, the evidence is already there.
Web, app or contact centre. VADS is a single interface your teams query wherever the booking or service moment happens.
A lookup, never a gate. VADS is a pre-travel or point-of-service check. It has no role in physical document, gate or boarding checks, and it is never a condition of access. Verification is always voluntary. Your existing processes for travel documents and vaccinations are unchanged.
Two halves of one system
VADS is the operator-facing check. The recognised charities that certify assistance dog teams hold and authorise their records in Vera, the charity portal. VADS only ever asks Vera a question. The charity always owns the answer.
Founding pilots
Fifteen minutes is enough to walk your team through the concept demo and map where VADS would sit in your booking journey or claims process. Founding partners shape the build.