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An Open Letter to Uber
Published By Richard C. Bell
If You Want to Be a Real New Yorker Provide Accessible Cars to Include ALL New Yorkers-We Embrace the Civil Rights of the Physically Challenged Here!
Uber entered the New York City market quickly and in vast numbers. Some estimates have Uber blanketing New York City with over 30,000 vehicles. There is clearly a cab war going on here between Uber and yellow cabs.
Lost in this business competition is Uber’s apparent disregard for wheelchair-bound New Yorkers. According to two self-professed disability rights advocacy groups, United Spinal Association and United for Equal Access, there are ZERO wheelchair accessible Uber cars on the road in New York City. If true, this is a disgrace in a city that practically invented diversity and cherishes civil rights for all of its residents, visitors and workers. According to its website, United Spinal Association reached an agreement a few years ago with the City of New York “to make half of yellow cabs accessible by 2020.” This agreement will become meaningless if Uber continues to grow in New York City and does not replace those 50% accessible yellow cabs with accessible Uber cars.
Uber, you don’t need politicians to cajole you or lawsuits to force you to become a good New York City citizen. Demand of your drivers that most of them have wheelchair accessibility by 2020 and the rest by 2023. I don’t know about the values in other places where you operate, but in New York City we demand and expect all people be treated equally all of the time. If you want to do business here and profit from the country’s largest market then be a concerned corporate citizen in return. Accessibility for all New Yorkers in Uber cars is not a suggestion, it’s the way we operate here. The melting pot of the world excludes no one. Remember that the next time you tell wheelchair-bound New Yorkers that Uber has no cars for them. Uber, do the right thing.
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This website contains “Attorney Advertising.” It is designed for general information only and should not be construed to be formal legal advice. Prior results cannot and do not guarantee a similar outcome. Please contact us by telephone or email. Be advised that using any method of communication to contact us does not create an attorney – client relationship. In order for this office to represent you, we must enter into a written retainer agreement. Simply contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please do not send any confidential information to this office until after a signed retainer has been entered into by you and this office.