[NAGDU] Had a scary experience with Lyft today

[Raul Gallegos - NAGDU]

Hello Leslie,
First off, I am sorry that you had an experience the way you describe. I am
always scared that a driver who is not paying attention will start driving
off before the door closes, dog or no dog. This has happened to me before,
even without my dog, where I was halfway in the car, one foot still on the
ground outside, and the rear passenger door still open, and the driver
starts moving forward. Now, as to riding with someone who is deaf, what I
have done is communicated with the driver via the Lyft or Uber message
system. This presents a solution to the immediate communication, but also
adds a masure of danger from texting and driving. So, another way you can do
this is open your notes app on your iPhone, a Keep Note from your Android,
or some form of large text area on any smart phone, make sure your
brightness is up, and your screen curtain or hide screen feature is
disabled. Then, write out, or dictate a quick message to quickly tell the
driver what you want them to know. I will usually say something like, I hope
we can communicate if necessary for this trip. The best way will be to use
the Uber/Lyft message service since I cannot see your visual signs. I have
found that this usually works well enough. While it is not cool that you
were dropped off where you describe, I hope that it was due to a case of
misunderstanding on the driver's part rather than a deliborte attempt to put
you in danger. Still though, I'm glad that you reported this incident to
Lyft.

Thanks for sharing.

-----Original Message-----
From: NAGDU <nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Leslie Hamric via NAGDU
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2024 10:24 PM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Cc: Leslie Hamric <lhamric930 at comcast.net>
Subject: [NAGDU] Had a scary experience with Lyft today

Hi all. I wanted to let you know about a scary experience I had with Lyft
today. Normally, when I get a notification saying that my driver is deaf or
hard of hearing, I've never had a problem. But this driver obviously had no
form of communicating with me. He did not appear to have Any form of
functional speech. So, I get in the car, and I'm waiting for Omega to get in
the car and he starts to drive off. I had this terrifying thought that omega
and I would be separated in the worst way. All I could do is call Out, wait!
And he stopped. Then, when he let me off, he dropped me right in the middle
of the parking lot and I had no idea where I was.  All I could hear was
traffic behind me and cars pulling in and pulling out of the parking lot all
around me. Luckily, I was able to FaceTime my husband and get directions to
where the building was. On the way home, I took Uber and that driver was so
much better. I reported the driver to both Lyft and the Lyft safety team and
I requested a refund. I got that refund too. I think next time I get an
alert that a driver is deaf or hard of hearing, I'm just going to cancel it
because I can't take the chance. I'm just glad that I OK, my dog is OK, and
we got home safely. Have any of you experienced the situation like this? If
so, how did you handle it?Thanks.
Leslie Hamric
Cello and Braille Music Teacher


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