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Uber drivers refused rides to this blind woman and her guide dog. Now the company must pay up
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Lisa Irving, who is blind, said Uber drivers refused to give her rides because they didn’t want her service dog, Bernie, in their cars.Courtesy Lisa Irving
Bernie, a Labrador retriever, trained for two years at Guiding Eyes for the Blind to be a service animal. “He was clean, well behaved, very quiet and always under my control,” said his owner, Lisa Irving of Mill Valley, who is legally blind.
Yet when Irving would summon an Uber, she said drivers frequently balked at letting Bernie in their cars, even as she explained that the Americans with Disabilities Act entitled her service animal to accompany her. Often the drivers would leave her stranded, needing to find another ride. Sometimes she ended up late to doctors’ appointments or to her work as a liaison to people with mental health challenges. She had a birthday ce
Just two weeks later, Texas was shut down.
“Before we left and went to Lackland, we were like, ‘OK, we have another two weeks of this. It sucks, but then afterward, we’ll be back to normal. It’ll just stay over there,’” Tyler Torres said
“I don’t think we ever imagined though that we would actually shut down,” Rachel said.
During that time, the couple said loved ones would turn to them looking for ways to occupy their time.
On the ship, Rachel had focused on learning Spanish and planning a friend’s event while Tyler kept upwards of 200,000 people abreast of the situation on board through a Reddit feed and blog.
An Irving man is found guilty on Wednesday of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor after sending provocative photos repeatedly to a child and attempting.
A group of people stole 11 vehicles, including an Audi, a BMW, two Maseratis, two Mercedes and a Porsche, in late February from a valet service parking lot near.