
Texas Woman with Cerebral Palsy: Uber Denied Her Service Over Two Dozen Times - uptown
https://gizmodo.com/texas-woman-with-cerebral-palsy-says-uber-denied-servic-1823927550
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RcouF1uZ4gsC
With the rise of the gig economy, I suspect that the ADA will come under
severe attack in the next few years. My guess is that most AirBnb apartments
don't really have ADA compliant accomodations. For example, many second floor
apartments only have stairs without elevators or wheelchair ramps. In
addition, there have been some high profile cases such as Berkeley removing
free, public lectures because of ADA violations
[https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/06/u-california-...](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/06/u-california-
berkeley-delete-publicly-available-educational-content)

as well as the abuse by some of bringing companion animals onto airplanes.

With independent contractors making a large part of the work force,
accommodating is harder for individuals than for companies, and so political
momentum may build up for repeal of the various laws.

~~~
brainbrane
> I suspect that the ADA will come under severe attack in the next few years.

I'm not worried. No politician will carry the flag of denying rights for
people with disabilities.

~~~
s73v3r_
I am, especially with this administration slashing regulations under the guise
of being "business friendly".

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stochastic_monk
Eliminating protections for students with disabilities was one of the first
things on Devos' docket upon taking office.

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purpleidea
If a bus driver is allergic to a dog, then it's usually not an issue because
the dog won't be very close to the driver, but in the case of an uber, it
could be a real problem.

I'm sympathetic to this person wanting to take an uber, but uber needs to be
able to allow drivers to mark their cars as "dog friendly". That way she can
get a ride, and allergic drivers won't suffer.

~~~
RangerScience
This makes sense. If instead of a dog it's a wheelchair, it's undeniably "not
your fault" if you car literally can't handle it.

The other issue is that we, as a society, subsidize the additional cost for
the handicapped; I doubt that Uber subsidizes the additional cleaning for
transporting a service dog.

~~~
gaius
_it 's undeniably "not your fault" if you car literally can't handle it_

If you are working as a commercial driver or employing commercial drivers then
yes, complying with the law is very much "your fault".

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RangerScience
Most taxis can't do wheelchairs, either. No-one blames the taxi driver.

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poster123
If it takes more time to get a passenger with cerebral palsy in and out of the
car, then a driver who picks one up is losing money compared to transporting a
regular passenger. If the government wants encourage ride-sharing services,
instead of punishing low-paid workers for doing what's in their interests, it
should give drivers bonuses for transporting passengers who present
difficulties.

My wife is a doctor. She does not get an extra fee for treating non-English
speaking patients, but she needs to pay a translator, and the appointments are
longer. She is effectively punished for seeing patients who don't speak
English. By the same logic as above, either the insurance company or the
patient should pay an extra fee when a translator is required. Otherwise,
doctors will be motivated to avoid working where lots of patients need
translators.

~~~
forapurpose
Perhaps we want to help people with greater needs, and not stick them with
higher prices everywhere they go - in part because people with greater needs
often have fewer resources.

Every business must pull its weight in contributing to society and make some
sacrifices; otherwise society, the economy, your community wouldn't function.
Your wife, I, and everyone reading this benefit from the sacrifices others
have made over centuries. We are specks of dust on the shoulders of giants, so
personally I'm happy and proud to be able to give a little.

> My wife is a doctor. She does not get an extra fee for treating non-English
> speaking patients

Maybe she should get a smaller fee for treating easier patients, and not only
those who are easier to communicate with but those with easier conditions to
treat, those who are more agreeable, those who can comprehend medical issues
more readily, those who are on time, those who can afford medications,
devices, tests, treatments, etc.

Every business has a variety of customers of differing levels of difficulty,
and generally charges them all the same; it averages out. Go buy some clothes;
if you take more of the salesperson's time, they don't charge you more.

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black_puppydog
just to prevent more "but the driver has an allergy, too" comments:

yes, some might. and we can have a debate about that. but most don't, and an
allergy is explicitely _not_ the reason _all_ of the drivers in this case
gave. so it doesn't apply here.

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UncleEntity
The difference is that at some point in your Uber "career" you will be
expected to transport someone with a service animal and you can't legally
refuse to transport them. The way the law is written you can't even ask to see
proof it's a service animal, if someone tells you it's a service animal then
it _legally_ is a service animal to explicitly prevent this form of
discrimination.

If you can't perform all the _legal_ requirements of a job then there's a case
to be made that you probably shouldn't be doing that job.

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s73v3r_
Taxi drivers can't do any of that either, so I don't see the problem.

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odammit
When booking a ride, Uber needs three toggles:

\- Do you a service dog

\- Do you want AC

\- Do you want to talk to the driver

Edit: I can’t format.

~~~
commanderjroc
That could lead to discrimination if someone see's a person has a service dog.

The whole point of the ADA is to not treat people with disabilities as if they
are second class citizens.

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odammit
Of course. But that driver could have a disability - their allergy if it’s
severe.

Maybe it shouldn’t be a toggle, maybe it’s a part of both the driver and users
profile so a driver can’t descriminate and instead it’s more of a matching
algorithm.

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bsedfsf
Try getting an uber with a child seat.

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xbeta
Don't Uber already provide that? I saw it in NYC (maybe they pick few cities
now to test this out)

[https://help.uber.com/h/3abcbae1-132b-42a9-8277-0dab00fa3879](https://help.uber.com/h/3abcbae1-132b-42a9-8277-0dab00fa3879)

~~~
csixty4
Only in NYC so far, last I checked.

My wife knows a taxi service here in Boston that we use when we're travelling
with the little guy. Last time we flew, we were picked up in a black car with
tinted windows and leather seats. There was a stylish black carseat in the
back for him ready to go. Sadly, he's still too young to feel like a rock
star.

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ThrustVectoring
It's interesting that the lawsuit is against Uber, and not the "independent
contractors" that fulfill the service on Uber's behalf. Likely because there's
no money in suing drivers, while Uber itself has billions.

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SamReidHughes
Uber is apparently the best way for this woman with cerebral palsy to get
around, given how much she uses it. Even with some drivers deciding that they
don't want to take her.

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rm_-rf_slash
The headline should specify that Uber drivers denied service, not the company
itself. The drivers violated Uber’s own policy regarding service animals.

~~~
jachee
Was disciplinary action taken against those drivers? If they continued to be
associated with Uber, without consequences, then Uber is complicit in their
behavior.

>Steele’s suit notes that Uber corporate were not especially helpful in
resolving her ongoing denial-of-service issues.

Seems like Uber is the ultimate root cause.

~~~
lhorie
This[1] suggests that they do have specialized channels to report this exact
type of problem, and that they do investigate and take action on reported
cases. It says they also periodically send reminder emails about the legal
requirements for drivers.

I talked to a driver once that said that he got suspended when a rider had
erroneously reported that he "looked high" (despite that being the only
complaint that day despite him having had many passengers). He complained that
Uber had not even bothered to hear his side of the story before suspending him
and they should've told him to come to a driver center to get tested, instead
of just taking someone's report at face value. He said he went to the hospital
to get drug tested and had to submit the results to get reinstated. So at
least from anecdata, it seems non-compliant drivers do get booted on a shoot-
first-ask-later fashion.

It sounds like the problem here is that some drivers still choose to break the
law on the 1 out a 1000 chance they run into the service dog situation, even
despite all the warnings telling them not to do it.

[1]([https://accessibility.uber.com/](https://accessibility.uber.com/))

