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Naomi Soule of St. Louis, Missouri is blind and uses her service dog, Farbee, to navigate the world around her. But, despite ADA laws granting her service dog complete access, she is still often told her seeing eye dog isn’t welcomed.
“You’d be surprised how many times I’ve been asked or told, ‘We don’t allow dogs in here,’” she said.
Such was the case, again, this week when an Uber driver refused to provide the driveshare service because of Farbee.
Uber’s policy says drivers are required by law to transport service animals. They do have the right to refuse an animal passenger that is simply a pet, and not service animal.
An Uber spokesperson offer the following statement to KSDK News:
“We were disappointed to learn of this rider’s experience as we are committed to increasing transportation options everywhere for everyone. We expect drivers to comply with our Code of Conduct that explicitly states service animals must be accommodated in compliance with accessibility laws.”
Coincidentally, The National Federation of the Blind and Uber very recently settled a lawsuit regarding this very issue. As part of that suit, Uber is required to better educate their drivers on service dog access laws.
Barbara
Nov 16, 2016 at 9:46 am
Publicize this shameful problem by calling it to the attention of Ellen Degeneris! I think this is an issue that must be addressed in the wonderful way she does on her show when she recognizes people who have sacrificed so much on behalf of the rest of us. I hope the hundreds of thousands of people who watch her show will send her an email calling to her attention the disgraceful way some of our veterans and service dogs have been treated. Ellen always has shown outstanding support for veterans and is a well known animal lover. I am sure one or more of her sponsors would be more than happy to thank these veterans in a substantial way and to reassure them of the respect and support they have from their fellow citizens.