We’ve covered in the past Uber’s problems with the ride-hailing service’s disabled passengers, which range from ride snubs to service dogs forced to ride in the trunk. It’s worth keeping that in mind when you learn about Uber’s latest change to their driver app to accommodate a different community of people with disabilities: the service is testing changes to its system that make driving for the service possible for people who are deaf. [More]
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Lawsuit Claims Starbucks Employees Discriminated Against Deaf Customers In NYC
By 7.16.13
Starbucks is facing a lawsuit brought by 12 customers in Federal court claiming that employees at the chain discriminated against deaf people in New York City. The plaintiffs say they were refused service, ejected from the store and made fun of for how they speak. [More]
How Switching To Cheaper Smartphone Plan For Deaf Customers Can Cost More
By 4.25.12
Mobile phone carriers aren’t about to let the majority of smartphone customers give up their voice plans any time soon, no matter how few minutes you use every month. Jack’s girlfriend doesn’t have much use for voice minutes, though. She’s deaf. She actually talks on the phone rarely, and more often uses the data connection to type to people and make phone calls using a relay service. After a few months, she managed to find someone at Sprint willing to put her on a special plan for deaf customers that has no voice minutes, and even gave her that plan’s price going back two months. What she didn’t realize was that she would be billed twenty cents for every minute of voice calls she had made during those two months. [More]
Woman Sues Qantas Airline After Screaming Child Makes Her Deaf
By 7.26.10
A 67-year-old American woman traveling in Australia last year has sued Qantas, because she says a screaming baby on board one of their flights made her deaf. Now before shake your head, what she describes in her suit is pretty horrific: “The boy allegedly leaned back over his armrest toward [her] and let out a scream so severe that blood erupted from her ears, leaving her ‘stone cold deaf’.” On the other hand, Qantas maintains that it has no way of predicting when a child might scream, since children naturally do that sort of thing. [More]
Disney Claims "Up" DVD Missing Captions Were A Mistake
By 11.22.09
Many Consumerist readers wrote to Disney about the missing captions in rental editions of the Pixar movie “Up,” either because they were personally affected or they found the omission offensive. In their response, Disney at least acknowledges the unique issue and promises to make up for the mistake of consumers submit proof that they rented “Up.”
Scammer Picks Wrong Sympathy Handicap
By 9.2.09
Any good grifter knows that a classic shortcut to sympathy is to fake a handicap. This guy, however, should have thought about the distancing effect of using a telephone relay service, which is designed for people who are hearing impaired.
Wells Fargo Keeps Hanging Up On Your Deaf Grandmother
By 6.16.09 — Updated: 2.24.14
Rachel’s 86-year-old grandmother was a loyal Wells Fargo customer for more than thirty years. She’s been forced to take her business to a new bank because Wells Fargo representatives refuse to talk to her.
Capital One Hates Deaf People
By 11.15.06
What’s in your wallet? I said, what’s in your wallet? Oh, forget it. From a reader:
