Uber faces lawsuit for failing on disabled accessibility
It's far from the first time someone sued the company for not making its services more accessible.
Uber has yet another problem to deal with: it's been slapped with a lawsuit for not making its services more available to people with disabilities. A couple of wheelchair users from Jackson, Mississippi have filed the lawsuit, accusing Uber of violating Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the California Disabled Persons Act and California's unfair competition law. According to TechCrunch, the lawsuit states that "persons with disabilities in Jackson have no ability to call a wheelchair accessible vehicle or a specially trained driver through the Uber app" even if some of the company's drivers are capable of accommodating them.
In 2014, the ride-hailing company launched a program called UberAssist that gives riders way to call for drivers trained in accessibility. Some of them even have vehicles that can accommodate folding wheelchairs if needed. Unfortunately, it's still only available in a handful (New York, Houston, Chicago, London, Portland) of markets.
A disability rights group in Chicago filed a federal lawsuit against the company in 2016 for failing to provide vehicles that can fit wheelchairs. Even UberAccess was created as a response to several lawsuits over the lack of support for people with disabilities. We're guessing the company will have to face even more until UberAccess becomes available everywhere. However, there are no guarantees that will ever happen, seeing as the program hasn't expanded that much since it launched.
