An advocate is alleging Uber discriminates against people with disabilities
Disability rights advocate Dustin Jones filed a complaint Tuesday with New York City's Commission on Human Rights alleging that Uber discriminates against people with disabilities, BuzzFeed News reports. Jones also included video footage of a driver rejecting him because his car wasn't big enough to fit his wheelchair, which wasn't foldable.
"Uber claims to accept wheelchair accessible vehicles in its service, but provides no requirements, guidelines, incentives, or encouragements to do so,” the complaint read. "Uber partners with local dealerships to rent or lease vehicles to potential drivers, but offer no option for wheelchair accessible vehicles."
UberWAV, the ride-sharing service's wheelchair-accessible partnership in New York and other cities with cab companies, isn't enough, Jones argued.
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"That's silly, frankly,” said Brian O'Dwyer, Jones' attorney. "They're going over to the yellow cab industry [to solve] their inability to provide wheelchair accessible cars. First of all, a yellow cab is not an Uber car. Second of all, calling UberWAV is a call forwarding thing from Uber to someone else. Anybody can pick up the phone themselves and get an accessible taxi. They wanted an Uber, so they're entitled to an Uber."
For its part, Uber argues the company has done a lot to give people with disabilities more transportation options. Jones and others planned to rally against the company Tuesday outside New York City Hall.
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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.
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