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Re:Uber ordered to pay $1.1M to blind woman refused rides by shagie on Monday April 05, 2021 @03:22PM (#26703391)
I would suggest that if the allergies are sufficient enough to reach disability, that instead of "Uber needs to assign the closest non-allergic driver" (because the ADA doesn't require that a passenger state that they have a service animal) ...

Rather, Uber needs to offer accommodations to drivers. Modification of the vehicle so that the driver and passenger areas are separate and the there is sufficient air filtration.

This way, Uber would be handling both disabilities appropriately with the ADA by providing the respective accommodations.

Re:Uber ordered to pay $1.1M to blind woman refused rides by filoleg on Monday April 05, 2021 @06:36PM (#26705533)
This sounds nice in theory, and, sure, it will solve the situation with a driver having a dog allergy.

But what about a more common and realistic scenario, where the driver doesn't have the allergy, but the next Uber passenger does (the one who gets into the car after the passenger with a dog leaves)? Do you propose to perform full sterilization of the vehicle after every passenger with a dog (and I mean an actual full sterilization, not just wiping the seats clean)? Because otherwise, the dog dander particles will still be present in the vehicle in some capacity, thus causing an allergic reaction in the next passenger who has allergies.

Re:Uber ordered to pay $1.1M to blind woman refused rides by seoaeu on Monday April 05, 2021 @05:56PM (#26705203)
I think the challenge for Uber is that (despite being illegal) it still makes way more sense for a driver to pass up a $10 fare than spend 15 minutes in close proximity to an animal they're allergic to followed by however long it would take to sanitize your car afterwards. If drivers were employees, then Uber could just say "do it or you're fired" but as independent contractors the situation is much harder.
Re:Uber ordered to pay $1.1M to blind woman refused rides by alistairSH on Monday April 05, 2021 @04:07PM (#26703971)
This.

Blind passengers need to have reasonable access to cars. If Uber wants to play in that market, they need to figure out how to accommodate those passengers. If the driver needs a screen, or a stack of N95 masks, to avoid allergies, that should be Uber's responsibility to provide.