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Comment by RcouF1uZ4gsC | Hacker News Reader

With the rise of the gig economy, I suspect that the ADA will come under severe attack in the next few years. My guess is that most AirBnb apartments don't really have ADA compliant accomodations. For example, many second floor apartments only have stairs without elevators or wheelchair ramps. In addition, there have been some high profile cases such as Berkeley removing free, public lectures because of ADA violations https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/06/u-california-...

as well as the abuse by some of bringing companion animals onto airplanes.

With independent contractors making a large part of the work force, accommodating is harder for individuals than for companies, and so political momentum may build up for repeal of the various laws.

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That's a pretty bad outcome, since (if "gig economy" businesses drive out regular ones) it will have the effect of making it much harder for disabled and elderly people to travel or even leave the house.

That's always been the concern of the gig economy. People too poor or with some other qualifier that prevents them from using gig services get stuck with a crappier and crappier public option as people with the means to do so flock to gig services and lose their appetite for funding public services they don't use.

This is a big part of why I bristle when Uber fans claim that ride sharing makes public transit obsolete.

Families, too. Taking kids on the bus or train is fine. If I were to try and use Uber, though, I'd need to also lug along 60lb worth of car seats. One car seat might be manageable, but even then I'd have to deal with the drivers giving me a hard time about installing it.

> This is a big part of why I bristle when Uber fans claim that ride sharing makes public transit obsolete.

Is public transit where you live like, insanely expensive? Quick back-of-the-envelope calculation reveals that public transit is around 1-2 orders of magnitude cheaper than Uber for me.

Today, when lugging 3 enormous picture frames to work, it was either walking to the city bus for $2.50 (or walking farther to the subway for $2.00), or $6.05 door-to-door in a shared hired car via an app (so I hired the car)

They might just not have an insanely long commute like you do.

So a bus is just a free for all then because you don't need a child seat? What's the reasoning behind that, just because of the sheer size and the weight of the bus cushioning the children from harm?

More or less, yeah. Also the height - most of the impact ends up getting absorbed by the bus's undercarriage, and relatively little of it is transferred to the occupants.

Supposedly un-belted bus occupants are safer than belted car occupants, and may even be safer than belted bus occupants, because seat belts tend to cause spinal injuries. Which is why very few school districts opt to install seat belts in their buses.

School buses: also consider the weaponization of the seatbelt by the student to annoy their seat mate; the ramifications of extricating dozens of children should the bus ever end up in a position where seatbelts are designed to prevent release...

> I suspect that the ADA will come under severe attack in the next few years.

I'm not worried. No politician will carry the flag of denying rights for people with disabilities.

In the USA we elected as president a politician who openly mocked a reporter with a physical disability. It doesn't seem like that much of a stretch to imagine someone carrying exactly that flag.

I can only assume they were being sarcastic.

I am, especially with this administration slashing regulations under the guise of being "business friendly".

Here is one example that looks like it died in the house: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/gop-s-h-r-620-will-gut...

Eliminating protections for students with disabilities was one of the first things on Devos' docket upon taking office.

Don't forget the ADA also protects disabled veterans.

The political fall-out would be terribad.

It would be simple for a bill to carve out exception for veterans. An example of this type of thing is that many laws against government employees forming a union exempt firefighters and police officers.

I don't know what it's like in the US, but in the UK people with disabilities are tired of asking nicely and have moved onto using the courts to enforce the long-existing laws.

With cars it's very clear: you can't refuse to take guide dogs.

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