this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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231
Legally blind woman left anxious and in tears after rideshare drivers refuse to pick her up 23 times in six weeks (www.abc.net.au)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by fiat_lux@kbin.social to c/australia@aussie.zone
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Victorian woman Kathryn Beaton says repeated, illegal denials of service from drivers refusing to allow her guide dog into their vehicles have left her effectively housebound.

Edited to add: "anxious and in tears" is some shit tier headline writing when the real problem is the loss of independence and freedom, and the hours she has had to spend waiting just to be actively discriminated against.

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[–] 001100010010@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why would you deny disable people a ride? I think just by accepting them, they'll give you a big tip just for accepting the ride. In any case it's still feels good to help people out, and make money at the same time, potentially a good tip if you be nice. Guide dogs are well trained so it doesn't even affect your car that much. It doesn't make sense to deny the ride, even just from a money-driven perspective, since the most vulnerable people are often the most kind people.

[–] fiat_lux@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A few reasons. Firstly disabled people aren't going to frequently tip in Australia, spending money to get everywhere is very expensive already. That's before all the other costs that come with being disabled. Plus anti-tip culture is still a big thing in Australia.

Secondly, a significant amount of drivers don't want mess, some of them are just anti-dogs for cultural or religious reasons, some people have phobias or allergies... some people have just heard too many horror stories about self-declared "emotional support animals".

It's a huge problem, and this sort of thing happens a lot, in different ways for different disabilities.

[–] 001100010010@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I think there should be an option in rideshares to register a service animal. Drivers should not be able to see it when the ride gets offered, but only when they are about like 1 block from the rider, then it show up as: "The rider have disabilities that requires the use of a service animal. Please be reminded that denying a ride due to a rider's disability or due to unwillingness to accommodate the service animal is illegal under [Insert Country Name] law. Thank you for your cooperation!"

[–] fiat_lux@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've personally witnessed 2 taxi drivers in a 10 minute time span who were hailed on the side of the street begin to pull over to collect a passenger, but stop as soon as they see the guide dog and drive off saying "sorry, no dogs". If they can deny someone to their face, they will deny them 1 block away.

I'd like to see the companies allow people with evidence of disability affected by dogs to opt out in advance from being assigned pickup jobs for people with service animals.

[–] 001100010010@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If the driver deny to accomodate for enough times, the driver should get deactivated.

[–] fiat_lux@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

From the article:

If a driver is reported once for refusing a service animal, they are suspended from the Uber driver app until they undergo additional education to understand their legal obligations.

A second report will generally result in permanent loss of access to the Uber driver app.

Drivers who breach the legal requirement to transport assistance animals in Victoria may be fined more than $1,900, lose their accreditation or, in some cases, face legal charges.

"Uber has tried to put things in place, but we don't believe there has been a reduction in the frequency of issues — in fact we think there has been an escalation," Blind Citizens Australia chief executive Sally Aurisch said.
She is calling for more law enforcement and transparency regarding refusal complaints, as well as service animal training in the preferred language of a driver.

"At the moment people stop complaining because they never find out what has happened, ... there are penalties in place, although we don't see them being enforced regularly."

Still happening and getting worse despite existing driver penalties. The penalty needs to be escalated up the chain to include the company.

[–] 404CameranotFound@lemmy.fmhy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you read the article, it’s due to service animals. People are refusing people with animals because they think that service animals will shit and piss in their car, likely.

That and I think this is cherry picking data. What’s the data for anyone with a pet? How can someone even tell if someone’s blind? I don’t think it’s about being blind, it’s about the pet, she just can’t see the person drive up, see a dog, and drive off.

[–] Skray@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Real service animals are well trained enough to not misbehave or damage property.

Unfortunately many people who don't have trained service animals claim they do.

In the US at least you are allowed to ask what task the dog is trained to perform (but not what illness/disability the person has), and can have the dog removed if it is out of control or not housebroken, but service cannot be denied due to allergies.

[–] 404CameranotFound@lemmy.fmhy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I know that. How Uber will enforce a change will be interesting (if they even did anything)