Blind Woman Says Uber Driver Leaves Her Stranded with Seeing-Eye Dog

Amy Dixon, with about 1 percent of her vision left in one eye, has struggled at times to get transportation from Darien, where she’s worked, back to her home in Greenwich.

She’s taken the train, but it can be uncomfortable walking to and from train stations, in the cold and crossing downtown streets in both Darien and New Canaan. Taxis can be expensive. Friends sometimes help.

(Last year, a dog reportedly attacked Dixon’s guide dog at the Darien train station, and she injured her leg trying to protect the dog.)

On Tuesday, according to a report on NBC Connecticut, she relied on the Uber service that links up people who need a ride with others who are willing to take them somewhere for a fee.

This time, when the driver stopped, Dixon said, she reached for the door — and actually had her hand on it when the driver suddenly pulled away, leaving her and her guide dog stranded at the curb.

She was flabbergasted, she told the television station. She yelled for him to stop and waved her arms, but none of that helped. About 10 seconds later Dixon received a text message from the driver saying the trip was cancelled. She thinks it happened because the driver saw the dog and didn’t want it in the car.

But that was the worst of it: Dixon was able to get another Uber driver to take her home.

According to NBC Connecticut, Uber said it fired the driver and issued a statement which said, in part: “The Uber app is built to expand access to transportation options for all, including users with visual impairments and other disabilities. It is Uber’s policy that any driver partner that refuses to transport a service animal will be deactivated from the Uber platform, which has been done in this case.”

Dixon was glad for the ride that she eventually did get and glad Uber took her complaint seriously, but said the company needs to educate its drivers about the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The company says, according to NBC Connecticut, that it did just that, and if a driver can’t accommodate a dog because of allergies or for religious reasons, the driver is supposed to wait with the customer until another car is called and arrives.

See the NBC Connecticut report for more details and the video report.

Photo: Elvis, Amy Dixon’s guide dog (from her Wordpress blog)

[Full disclosure: I once gave Amy Dixon and her dog a ride last winter. The dog behaved perfectly, and I didn’t notice any hair left behind.]