Uber's latest app update is aimed at its significant and growing number of deaf and hard-of-hearing drivers. and has come up with a way to make it easier for them to has a new app update to make life easier for and their passengers.
"It's a product designed to address the needs of the deaf and hard-of-hearing," said Uber's east coast regional manager Rachel Holt at an event announcing the update.
D.C. is actually near the top of areas with the most deaf Uber drivers. The fact that Uber has so many drivers with hearing problems seems surprising at first, but there are plenty. One of Uber's deaf drivers described it as a perfect job for him.
"I like meeting new people and the freedom of the job," said said Larry Cotton Jr., an Uber driver in San Francisco.
Being deaf can severely limit employment opportunities, with close to 50 percent of people with hearing impairment unemployed or underemployed according to the National Association of the Deaf. Cotton said he doesn't face those obstacles as a driver although he apparently gets all kinds of strange questions when his riders find out he can't hear, including asking if that means he can't see or smell. Uber used feedback from Cotton and many other deaf drivers to come up with the tweaks to the platform that make things a little easier for them.
For hearing-impaired drivers, the app will actually flash with light when there's a prospective fare, instead of the usual tone. That way they will have a chance to grab riders they might otherwise miss. Once they get confirm a pick-up, the usual option for a rider to call the driver is turned off, with a prompt for texting instead, thus avoiding confusion. The rider is also informed that the driver is hearing-impaired, so they should enter their destination.
"We commend Uber for enhancing their mobile app to improve communications between drivers and passengers, regardless of whether they are hearing or deaf," said Howard Rosenblum, CEO of the NAD. "Uber is already popular deaf people as riders. Now you're going one step further."
This isn't Uber's first attempt to better serve the larger community of people with disabilities. The company has been working on a program to get more wheelchair-accessible vehicles on the road through a partnership with one of the major dealers in such vehicles. There was also an attempt to partner with taxis that are wheelchair accessible in D.C., but that didn't work out according to Holt. The new features could also continue Uber's long-running efforts to improve its image after several damaging stories last year.
Right now the new features are just in D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, but they will roll out nationally in a couple of weeks. Check out the (silent) video below to see more about Uber's work with the deaf community.
