Uber and Lyft are adding an ASL function to help drivers and riders communicate better!
There's always a possibility that your ride-share driver may be deaf or hard of hearing, so Uber and Lyft are lending a hand by teaching American Sign Language (ASL). Uber claims it has "thousands" of deaf and hard-of-hearing drivers, and they saw trends in reviews about communication difficulties. Well, to help alleviate the communication gap, Uber -- and also Lyft -- have added functions to help riders learn ASL. It's not a full-on lesson, but definitely a crash course to help drivers and riders better communicate. Uber launched the new tool in late September, which teaches simple phrases in American Sign Language. They also developed a website, ubersignlanguage.com, as an extension of the company's outreach effort launched in 2015, to recruit more drivers from the deaf community.
How does it work? When you get matched with your driver, you are given a notification that they are deaf and are then given the option of learning a few ASL phrases in the app. The feature teaches you simple conversational phrases like "hello," "I am [how to spell your name]," and "thank you." The app also provides you with directional signs like "turn right," or "to the left."
Lyft released a similar concept on Sept. 18, which texts riders to let them know their driver is deaf or hard of hearing. The app will send you a link so you can learn how to say "hello" and "thank you" in ASL.
These aren't the first moves the companies have taken to make deaf drivers' lives a bit easier. Like we said, back in 2015, Uber announced its first steps: that the app would flash to let drivers know when a request was coming in, as well as another feature giving riders text-only options to contact their drivers. Back in April, Lyft rolled out notifications through the company's Amp device to drivers.
Lyft also started texting riders to let them know how their drivers preferred to be contacted. As a part of Lyft's Sept. 18 update, the company started their similar function of making the phone screen flash to let the driver know of ride requests.
Both of the company's updates came in honor of National Deaf Awareness Month, and they are working with the National Association of the Deaf to come up with these innovative ways to be more inclusive to deaf or hard-of-hearing drivers.
What do you think about these initiatives to help teach ASL to riders and assist deaf drivers? Tell us in the comments!
