Michelle Barlak, public relations manager for The Seeing Eye, which provides guide dogs to people with visual impairments, tells WIRED that the organization has been receiving “frequent and increasing reports of denials of access to ridesharing by Seeing Eye dog handlers.” A survey by the nonprofit Guide Dogs for the Blind found that 83 percent of members said they had been denied passage.
Both Uber and Lyft offer in-app options to specify that you’re traveling with a pet, which usually comes with a slightly higher fee. However, since guide dogs are not pets, people with visual impairments cannot be required to employ this option.
A Lyft spokesperson tells WIRED that by 2025 the company will launch “service animal consent function”, which he said would allow passengers to “disclose that they are traveling with a service animal when requesting a ride.”
Uber, which did not respond to a request for comment, allows passengers to determine via in-app settings if traveling with a service animal.
“Under the ADA, rideshare drivers cannot deny access based on the dog’s size, weight or breed, allergies, fear of dogs, or cultural/religious objections,” Barlak tells WIRED.
During the protest, White argues that guide dogs are in no way comparable to pets, which drivers may fear are unruly or misbehaving. Some drivers, however, do not see them differently.
“Guide dogs are $75,000 dogs — they won’t go to the bathroom in your car or get sick in your car,” White says.
Barlak says Uber and Lyft need to make it easier for visually impaired passengers to report difficulties using their services, and the companies need to do a better job of educating drivers about the needs of blind passengers.
Michael Forzano, a protester who lives in Fresh York and uses a guide dog, claims that on three occasions drivers slammed doors on him, drove away while his hands were still on the car and almost ran over his paws. After reporting these incidents, he states that nothing happened.
Another time, an Uber driver in Orlando refused to allow Forzano and his girlfriend to employ the service when they entered the car with a guide dog. She says the driver turned on noisy music and verbally attacked them until they completed their journey. “I waited over an hour for the police to arrive,” Forzano says. “The police sided with the driver and I’m still working on it.”