I use rideshare services to travel everyday. Just with everyday errands such as taking my children to school, household shopping, and commuting, I spend upwards of $70 a day on rides because of my visual impairment. I cannot drive myself, this is not a choice of mine. This is by force, it is not safe for me to drive. I have five children that I cannot transport to and from school, and it makes it difficult for me to go places with them because of the exorbitant fees that are associated with taking larger vehicles to get where we are going.

Living in a large city, it is inefficient to take the bus everywhere. Rideshare services like Uber and Lyft have really become popular among the visually impaired but equally expensive, and many of us are on fixed incomes and cannot afford to pay the fees associated with taking using these services. These fees are also not counted by Social Security or state agencies as a deductible expense. It is unfair to those of us who are visually impaired to be forced to pay such high prices for a service that is not a luxury but a necessity to have our needs met. These companies are making a great deal of money from rideshare services, if they were to offer a discounted service for the visually impaired this would lead more people with visual impairments to use these services is as opposed to depending on friends and relatives to get where they need to go, if they even have friends and relatives to rely on. Some people may be like me, completely independent and do not have others that they can call on for rides on a regular basis.