Uber, Lyft and discrimination
Ride-sharing drivers often deny riders with disabilities
The first time it happened hurt the worst, Patricio Espinoza said.
He was standing with his service dog, a 70-pound German shepherd named Frida, waiting for a car from Lyft during a visit to Los Angeles.
“The driver showed up, rolled down the window, said ‘Nope,’ and drove away,” Espinoza said. “For someone to take one look at us and turn around, to not even take the time to talk to me … That was upsetting.”
Five more drivers from the ride-sharing service have declined to transport Frida in the Phoenix area since August, according to Espinoza, a Phoenix resident and graduate student.
While those refusals were less insulting than the first, he said, they were inconvenient. They also were likely illegal.
The federal Americans With Disabilities Act requires businesses and transportation providers to “allow service animals to accompany people with disabilities in all areas ... where the public is normally allowed to go.” It also states that private transportation providers must offer “readily accessible” vehicles to riders who use wheelchairs or other devices.
Policies at Uber and Lyft generally reflect those requirements, promising stiff consequences for drivers who discrimi-
Patricio Espinoza walks with his service dog, Frida, Tuesday in downtown Phoenix. He says multiple ride-sharing drivers have refused to give him a ride because he has a service dog. MARK HENLE/ THE REPUBLIC
nate against riders with disabilities.
Experiences like Espinoza’s should be rare, the companies say. But they’re not.
“Through my organization, I’ve spoken with many people locally who have told me about not being able to get an Uber, or get into an Uber,” said Larry Wanger, executive director of the Arizona Statewide Independent Living Council. “These issues are very common, both here and nationally.”
The Phoenix-area claims come on the heels of a national study that concluded Uber users with “AfricanAmerican sounding names” had longer waits and higher cancellation rates than those with white-sounding names. The drivers in that study canceled rides electronically, however, rather than rejecting users after seeing them.
Bryan Duarte, a blind Queen Creek resident, said Uber and Lyft drivers have passed him “several times” once they saw him with his guide dog.
“I’ll order an Uber and wait in a visible area for the driver to locate me, since I will not be able to locate them,” he said. “The application will tell me the driver has arrived, and right after that, the application will tell me, ‘Sorry, the driver had to cancel the ride. Please retry.’
“Must be a coincidence that the driver got all the way to my exact location before he realized he was late for dinner, right?” Duarte said. “It’s not right.”
Espinoza, who said he has arrived late to class at least twice after requesting and waiting for multiple drivers, said he now calls every driver to say he has a service dog with him.
“I know I don’t have to call, because they’re supposed to take us, no questions asked,” he said. “But I don’t want to waste my time anymore.”
Jennifer Longdon, a Phoenix disability-issues advocate who uses a wheelchair, hasn’t had trouble with specific drivers. Since downloading the Uber app on Oct. 22, she said, she’s struggled to get a ride at all.
“I normally have a wheelchair-accessible van with a specialized lift, but I’m waiting for it to be repaired,” Longdon said. “I thought, ‘OK, great. I’ll just Uber.’ We have UberWAV (an option that allows users to request a vehicle with a ramp or lift) in Phoenix. But no matter what I did, for two days straight, it told me there were no vehicles available.”
On Oct. 24, Longdon tried to request an UberWAV to get home from work and was prompted to call a dispatch number.
The dispatcher had a van available, Longdon said, but gave her a one-hour window with no way to track the driver’s progress. Standard Uber users can follow a driver’s route on the app.
“I’m sitting outside waiting for my Uber, and what shows up after 51 minutes is essentially an ambulette (a mini ambulance),” she said. “The driver was a wonderful, friendly young man, but he gets out and says, ‘Which one of you is the patient?’ I’m not a patient. I’m a person.”
On Wednesday, Longdon again requested an UberWAV but was told it was “in an overflow situation and not taking any more bookings tonight.”
“After trying to figure out an alternative, I ended up wheeling myself the two or so miles home,” she said.
Policies at Uber and Lyft explicitly forbid drivers to deny service dogs or otherwise discriminate against riders with disabilities. But drivers say not everyone is aware of — or willing to follow — the details of those policies.
Alley Lightfoot, a Phoenix-area driver for both Uber and Lyft, said she would never refuse a service dog but has seen others raise questions and concerns about them in online forums.
“We have a Facebook group for Lyft drivers, and someone posted a couple months ago saying they wouldn’t let a service dog in their car,” Lightfoot said. “The responses were about 50-50, with some people saying ‘I would never. That’s disgusting. I’m allergic,’ and others saying, ‘You don’t have a choice. It’s the law.’ ”
Lyft allows certain exceptions to the service-animal rule if drivers have a “medically documented condition” but says the driver “must contact our Critical Response Line ... to inform us so that other arrangements can be made.”
Uber does not make any exceptions. According to the ADA, “allergies and fear of dogs are not valid reasons for denying access or refusing service to people using service animals.”
Both companies say they will investigate, suspend or dismiss drivers found to have violated their anti-discrimination policies, though neither service could immediately share how many Phoenix-area drivers had experienced such consequences. In most cases, the companies only know about violations if riders report them.
“We have a team that is specially dedicated to handling these issues and ... every complaint is reviewed internally,” Uber spokeswoman Chelsea Kohler said. Lyft did not respond to requests for comment.
While the companies’ anti-discrimination policies are consistent nationwide, their accessible-vehicle options vary widely by location.
Uber rolled out UberACCESS in Phoenix last year to offer “safe and reliable rides ... (for) riders with specific needs.”
Under that tab in the app, users who want a driver trained to help riders into and out of vehicles or a vehicle that can accommodate folding wheelchairs, walkers and scooters can request an UberASSIST. They can also request an UberWAV, but Uber could not provide the average number of such vehicles in service in Phoenix.
Lyft similarly has created an “Access Mode” option that will dispatch wheelchair-accessible vehicles. Access Mode is available at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, according to Lyft’s website; it’s not clear where, if anywhere, else it might be offered in the Valley.
It’s also unclear how much training the companies offer to drivers, aside from those involved with UberASSIST.
Wanger, the Arizona Statewide Independent Living Council executive director, said ride-sharing accessibility issues aren’t limited to Phoenix.
Users from California to Illinois to Tennessee have reported problems trying to get rides that would accommodate guide dogs or wheelchairs.
“These drivers are transportation providers under Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act,” Wanger said. “(These companies), as their facilitators, have a responsibility to make sure that they offer accessible options.
“That would include ensuring you have some vehicles available to provide the same level of service to people who use wheelchairs as regular users. And waiting for hours, or not being able to get a ride at all, is not a similar level of service,” he said.
At this point, Wanger said, riders with disabilities will likely “need the courts to decide how this is going to go.”
A 2014 claim filed against Uber by the National Federation of the Blind resulted in a nearly $300,000 settlement requiring the service-dog policy the company maintains today, according to the Los Angeles Times.
A pending lawsuit filed in October by Chicago-based Access Living alleges Uber is “unusable” by people with motorized wheelchairs and aims to force more accessible options.
For Espinoza, it’s less about punishing the companies and more about making sure drivers are simply “aware of what the rules are.”
“Ninety percent of the time, the drivers are great and understanding, and for the ones who aren’t, it’s not like I want them to lose their way of making a living,” Espinoza said. “What I really want is for them to improve.”
“The driver showed up, rolled down the window, said ‘Nope,’ and drove away.” PATRICIO ESPINOZA ON TRYING TO USE LYFT IN LOS ANGELES