[NAGDU] Her Uber driver saw her service dog and didn't stop. It happens more than you think

Fri Apr 6 13:22:56 UTC 2018

The  company has to hear the customer and the customer is right until
otherwise proved. I am guessing this is true anyway. Of course that leaves
the door open for other animals and their fake users, but Uber has stated a
policy of carrying pets.

Cindy Lou Ray

-----Original Message-----
From: NAGDU <nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Andy B. via NAGDU
Sent: Friday, April 6, 2018 7:14 AM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Andy B. <sonfire11 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NAGDU] Her Uber driver saw her service dog and didn't stop. It
happens more than you think

How does Lyft or Uber know for sure that the driver left the passenger
because of a service dog? Like employers, drivers can come up with all sorts
of reasons for refusing a ride.

-----Original Message-----
From: NAGDU <nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Ginger Kutsch via NAGDU
Sent: Friday, April 6, 2018 8:01 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Ginger Kutsch <Ginger at ky2d.com>
Subject: [NAGDU] Her Uber driver saw her service dog and didn't stop. It
happens more than you think

Her Uber driver saw her service dog and didn't stop. It happens more than
you think

By Matthew Martinez

mmartinez at mcclatchy.com 

April 05, 2018 04:40 PM  

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article20807287
9.html

Liz Campbell depends on her service dog Barbara to get around town. But when
the trip is too long for a walk, Campbell often looks to the same people her
sighted counterparts do: Uber and Lyft drivers.

But Campbell, 56, who has been a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
for 33 years, says her driver discriminated against her Tuesday when he
"deliberately passed us by and later claimed that I must have canceled the
trip."

She took Barbara to Mount Olivet Cemetery in Fort Worth Tuesday to be there
for a friend who had just lost a loved one. When it was time to leave, she
asked another friend to wait with her for her Uber.

"It showed that the Uber was eight minutes away, so periodically I had him
check the map and track the driver. A few minutes later, the driver drove
right past," Campbell said. "So my friend called him and he came back
around. When he drove up he told me, 'ma'am you must have canceled the trip
because I don't see you on my dashboard anymore.' And I said, 'no I did not
cancel the trip. You must have been the one to cancel it.'"

Whoever canceled it, that was the moment a resolution could have been
reached with the extension of an offer to reinstate the ride. But that
didn't happen, Campbell said.

"My friend got a little argumentative with the driver, telling him, 'you're
just doing this so you don't have to take her dog,'" Campbell said. "But the
driver said, 'No, I take dogs. I take dogs all the time. I take all kinds of
dogs.' But he didn't extend any offers to take Barbara and I, and I told him
that I would be filing a formal complaint with Uber."

She ended up getting a ride home with a friend. Uber spokeswoman Kayla
Whaling told the Star-Telegram that the driver Campbell lodged the complaint
against had been removed pending an investigation.

"I'm glad I didn't have to request another Uber, although I would have had
to if no one else was around," Campbell said.

Uber company policy, as well as the Americans With Disabilities Act, leave
very little room for interpretation on the issue of riders with service
animals.

"Since the law and Uber policies prohibit discrimination against people with
disabilities and their service animals, refusal to accept them into your
car, even once, can result in a permanent deactivation of your Uber driver
account," the Uber policy reads.

Campbell, who is also the president of the Texas Association of Guide-Dog
Users, reported the service-animal issue through the Uber app.An Uber
representative named Jeffrey replied about six hours later via email, "Thank
you for reporting this situation, Elizabeth. We have launched an internal
investigation and someone will be in contact with you as soon as possible
regarding this matter. We appreciate your patience."

uber  

Uber's preliminary response to Liz Campbell's complaint that she was denied
a ride using the platform Tuesday night because she travels with a service
dog.

Both Uber and Lyft have been down this road before.

Uber settled a lawsuit brought against the company by the National
Federation for the Blind of California in April 2016. In the settlement,
Uber agreed to implement the rule for removing drivers from the platform if
they knowingly deny service because a rider has a service animal, as well as
increased training for drivers regarding service animals and other
stipulations.

Those new rules for Uber drivers went into place in January 2017. Lyft
implemented more comprehensive service animal-related rules just three
months later, according to Disability Rights Advocates, a non-profit
corporation.

But that hasn't stopped additional discrimination reports against drivers.

D'Edra Steele, another Texas resident, is suing Uber because, on
"approximately 25 separate occasions" from 2016 through 2017, drivers
canceled rides or refused her service after finding out that she uses a
service dog for her cerebral palsy, according to The Drive.

In November 2017, Boston police investigated an Uber driver who allegedly
told a blind woman he would not give her and her guide dog a ride before
dragging her legally blind boyfriend down a city block, according to WBZ-TV.
Uber later apologized and removed that driver from the platform.

A month before that, and back in Texas, a legally blind man from Austin
complained after he, too, was nearly dragged by an Uber driver who refused
him service because of his guide dog, according to KTBC. The company also
removed that driver's access to the app.

Lyft is facing a class-action discrimination lawsuit in the San Francisco
area, filed by Disability Rights Advocates, that alleges that the company
does not provide enough wheelchair accessible vehicles.

"This is not just an issue that affects blind people," Campbell said. "Folks
with disabilities of all kinds, including vets who have service animals for
their PTSD, face the same discrimination."

Unlike with taxi companies, Uber and Lyft drivers are independent
contractors who provide their own cars. Some say this makes it more
difficult to ensure good service for people with disabilities than it would
be if they were full-fledged employees of the company.

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