The Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled, Taxis For All, and Disabled In Action of Metropolitan New York are the three newest plaintiffs in yet another discrimination lawsuit against ride-share giant Uber. Filed in Washington DC in June 2017, the suit alleges that 99.9 percent of the close to 60,000 Uber vehicles in New York are not accessible to wheelchair-users. The lawsuit also alleges that the long wait times or totally unavailability of accessible vehicles are a human rights violation. Uber has long held that they are a technology company, and as such they are exempt from the Americans with Disabilities Act. Several other discrimination lawsuits against Uber are currently under litigation, and advocates for the disabled hope to set a precedent that will require ride-share companies to provide an adequate number of accessible vehicles in the future. “Our lawsuit against Uber’s discrimination makes it clear: It’s 2017, not the 1950s, when it comes to equal access to transportation,” noted a spokesperson for the NYC plaintiffs.

Editor’s Note: In June 2018 a settlement agreement was reached in this lawsuit. Under the agreement, by mid-2021, all ride share companies must service at least 80 percent of requests for wheelchair-accessible vehicles in under 10 minutes and 90 percent in under 15 minutes — or they must associate with a company that does the same.