Originally published at: Uber ordered to pay $1.1m to blind woman refused rides | Boing Boing
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What the hell? How could someone be such a rotten person?
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Apparently quite a few someones, evidently who didn’t want service animals in their vehicles and were willing to strand a disabled person. I’m glad Uber will pay, but I really hope there’s also legal consequences for the lowlife drivers who broke the law by stranding her.
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I doubt there will be. Uber will ban the drivers for costing them money and will probably let Lyft and other rideshare companies know about them as well, effectively blackballing them. The lowlife drivers will fall back on driving for the traditional taxi industry, where stranding and ignoring “undesirable” passengers (PoC in addtion to disabled people) is a standard practise.
That said, I am glad to see another hit to Uber’s BS claim that “they’re only contractors, not employees”.
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This is something that has played out here in the UK a number of times over the last few years. Drivers’ cultural preferences against dogs have regularly been ruled to be incompatible with our disability discrimination legislation.
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The driver who “falsely claimed to have arrived at her destination” should have his extremities removed. A dirty trick. I drive for a living and am a “dog person” and I see no problem with anyone getting into the car with a dog, service animal or not, the only proviso being - NOT on the seats, please, in wet weather!
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That Lisa, you can’t take her anywhere.
Or, perhaps, you can.
Still, bastard trick.
Sad, but true. Not only were they stranding people, but they didn’t have enough accessible vehicles for people using wheelchairs and other assistance devices. There have been several investigations and lawsuits over this in Pennsylvania:
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Apropos, Uber continues to be unprofitable year on year while spaffing billions of dollars.
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I don’t think the issue for the driver is the fact the person is blind, it’s the dog. I moved from a dog friendly place to Detroit where people have a different attitude towards them unfortunately. Some are very afraid of large breeds. Another issue is that people seem to be far more allergic to dogs these days. Because of that the driver might need to immediately go clean out the car after giving the dog a ride which is an added cost and lost time (I still can’t get all the dog hair out of my car without getting a full detail) and I think we all know how hard the drivers have it when it comes to fair pay. I love my dog and my blind mom but I can also see the other side. Taxis don’t have carpet for a reason (hair, drunk puking, snow/water, etc.) What happened to this woman is definitely not right and it should be up to Uber to solve the problem.
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Christ, what total assholes…
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The important thing to remember: this is not an isolated incident.
That’s an entirely different person rejected not just for her service dog, but when they saw her in a wheelchair. Uber has had these issues for a long time and they are widespread.
Ableism is real, the rest is just excuses.
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Neary every company in the US has those arbitration clauses right there with the prohibition of class actions. It really sucks, you have to give up rights in order to do business with them. And here’s Uber, of course, hiding behind the skirt strings of their $200B buyout of workers’ rights in California. That will be their defense for everything: They’re not employees, they’re contractors!
We’re actually flying tomorrow. I made a reservation with a local car service. No uber or lyft here.
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Anyone seen the new documentary “Stray” yet?
Dogs wandering round Istanbul etc.
I learned one new fact from the film (I think).
About three-quarters of the way through the film a man nudges one of the strays away with his leg while claiming (subtitles) that he is not allowed to come into contact with the dog because he is Muslim, and to be touched by a dog would make him unclean.
Does anyone here know if that is fact?
May explain a taxi driver’s reluctance.
Or might be a load of bollocks.
Any help?
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