JUDGE: UBER DOESN’T HAVE TO OFFER WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBILITY

A California federal judge has rejected a legal push to require Uber to provide wheelchair-accessible vehicles, finding that such a mandate would be too onerous on the ride-hailing company.

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U.S. District Chief Judge Richard Seeborg ruled in San Francisco against Scott Crawford of Mississippi and two co-plaintiffs from New Orleans who had argued that Uber’s lack of wheelchair-accessible vehicles in New Orleans and Jackson, Mississippi, violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.

But Seeborg wrote that the plaintiffs failed to present a reasonable modification of Uber’s services and didn’t provide adequate evidence that the company had violated the law.

The ruling followed a bench trial that lasted nearly five years. The two New Orleans residents were the first to sue the company, alleging that the absence of wheelchair-accessible vehicles in the city was a violation of the ADA, WLBT-TV said. Crawford then used the same argument in calling for the vehicles in Jackson.