[Cagdu] FW: [seeing-eye] Legally blind woman says some Uber drivers refuse to give her rides

[Tina Thomas]

Subject: [seeing-eye] Legally blind woman says some Uber drivers refuse to give her rides

 

Legally blind woman says some Uber drivers refuse to give her rides

Published:Monday, November 7th 2016, By Coleen Harry, Reporter

http://www.wbtv.com/story/33653548/legally-blind-woman-says-some-uber-drivers-refuse-to-give-her-rides

 

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - 

 

Victoria Bellamy only has very limited vision in one eye. She and her guide dog, Mr. Radley, have been together for a year. 

 

"Yes, he is my eyes because he can find anything for me. If I say to the steps, he’ll stop at the steps to indicate we are at the steps. I won’t go tumbling

down. If I tell him to the door he’ll take me to the door," Bellamy said. "Just a couple of weeks ago we went to the Raleigh State Fair and he navigated

me through all those crowds. He didn’t bump into anyone and knock anyone done and so basically he increases my independence."

 

To get around Charlotte, Bellamy turns to Uber. But she said some Uber drivers have been turning her down. 

 

"That has just been awful. I have been using the service of Uber since March and since that time – it’s been 9 months now – I’ve had eight denials," she

said. "So it's kind of becoming one denial per month."

 

The refusal has happened so often, Bellamy started recording when drivers arrived. 

 

She said when some drivers saw her two year old guide dog  - the excuses why they won't give her a ride come pouring out.  

 

"Some say they don’t want hair in their car. They say they have allergies. Some people say they just don’t want a dog, there’s no good reason – they just

say no and drive away" Bellamy said. 

 

"When someone denies my service animal it’s really a heart breaking experience because this isn’t a regular dog. This is a dog I’m with 24/7 who increases

my independence, allows me to do things I didn’t think were possible, allows me to walk with my head held high instead of looking down to the ground to

know where I’m going. So he’s really like a part of me in a way a person uses a wheel chair that’s a part of them" she said. 

 

WBTV contacted Uber to see if the practice is accepted by the company but no one from Uber responded to our questions. 

 

Julia Sain, the Executive Director of Disability Rights & Resources, said it's illegal to refuse service dogs. 

 

"The Americans with Disabilities Act says if you are a private company, primarily in the business of transportation and you do demand response transportation

– of course that’s you call them up and they show up like cabs, and Uber – then you have to make sure you’re accessible to people that includes having

service animals in your vehicle."

 

Sain said people around the country began filing lawsuits against Uber. 

 

"This past May, there was a settlement of class action lawsuit between Uber and the National Federation for the Blind when Uber finally admitted they had

been doing wrong," Sain said. "And they came up with five agreements in order for this to be settled." 

 

Sain said Uber agreed to inform all their drivers what the requirements are so they would stop denying passengers who had a service animal. 

 

Company executives said they were going to remove any drivers who violated the law.  

 

Sain said Uber also agreed to pay the National Federation for the Blind $225,000 penalty over three years, and they were going to revise their written

handbook and make sure everybody who was driving received a written copy of the policy to make sure they knew that. 

 

The company also said it would keep a database  - a national database of all the complaints they had gotten of drivers who had allegedly done this and

how they had handled that driver.

 

Sain said she recommends anyone who is still experiencing service refusal to contact the National Federation for the Blind. 

 

Victoria Bellamy just wishes drivers would comply with the law. 

 

"I can just really feel the discrimination and it hurts me deeply since it keeps happening and some occasions the denial has brought me to tears" she said. 

 

 

 

 

-- 
The Seeing Eye
Independence with Dignity since 1929

 
If you need to contact one of the list owners for 
> questions or assistance, please use the following email address: seeing-eye+owner at googlegroups.com <mailto:seeing-eye+owner at googlegroups.com> .
--- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Seeing Eye Discussions" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to seeing-eye+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com <mailto:seeing-eye+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com> .
To post to this group, send email to seeing-eye at googlegroups.com <mailto:seeing-eye at googlegroups.com> .
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/seeing-eye/040301d239d0%246ee5a410%244cb0ec30%24%40ky2d.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/seeing-eye/040301d239d0%246ee5a410%244cb0ec30%24%40ky2d.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> .
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://nfbcal.org/pipermail/cagdu/attachments/20161208/77ad0ee4/attachment.html