Summary: Uber Technologies is being sued for refusing taxi service for blind persons and their service dogs.
Uber Technologies Inc, the $40 billion transportation company, which offers mobile phone taxi-hailing services in over 270 cities in 56 countries, has squirmed and squirmed but cannot escape the lawsuit it must now face alleging they discriminated against blind people by refusing to transport their guide dogs.
Uber failed to convince U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins of San Jose, California, that the National Federation of the Blind of California lacked the standing under the ADA and state laws to sue. Their attempt to claim that blind people discriminated against must seek arbitration on a case for case basis also failed to go through. Further, their boast that they are “on the cutting edge of expanding accessibility” for the disabled is too little too late.
Pretty much they have to answer for some 40 known instances in which blind persons were denied services for their guide dogs. In two instances, Uber drivers allegedly yelled “no dogs,” and a disturbing case involving a blind woman who realized her dog was locked in the trunk: the driver refused to stop for her to get the dog out.
As federal law forbids discrimination based on disability, Uber has become a fitting target for this series of complaints.
News Source: Huffington Post