[TRANSCRIPT]

Melissa Yingst Huber

Uber and Lyft, ridesharing “taxi” apps, will no longer be operating in Austin, Texas because the city government and Austin residents voted against Proposition 1, which would have allowed ride-sharing companies to continue using their own background check systems, including fingerprints. This means that all Uber and Lyft drivers would have to undergo an intensive background check, which they objected to, saying that relying on out-of-date databases would make it difficult to hire enough drivers within a reasonable timeframe. Advocates for fingerprint checking argued it would be more effective with screening out potential criminals.

Uber and Lyft tried to avoid this by spending more than $8 million and bombarded voters with mailers, ads, phone calls and text messages. In the end, it wasn't enough to convince residents in Austin to vote against Proposition 1.

What does this mean for Austin, a city with one of the largest Deaf and Hard of Hearing populations, with many of them working for Uber and Lyft? We reached out to Martha Anger, a former Uber driver in Austin to get her thoughts on how this will impact opportunities for the Deaf community.

Martha Anger: Honestly, in my opinion, I just wish the companies would follow the new law or come to some sort of agreement with the fingerprinting so we could keep our jobs. For now, there are still some other options for drivers like Get Me, Favor, and Instacart. Those are at least a few other options for drivers who have lost their jobs.

Melissa: This will be a big change for the Deaf community there. Another big question is whether this will affect the partnership that Uber has with Communication Services for the Deaf (CSD), which is also based in Austin. We reached out to CSD and got confirmation that this will in no way affect the partnership.

Jackson Busenbark: CSD truly appreciates its partnership with Uber. This partnership has generated economic opportunities for Deaf and Hard of Hearing driver-partners. We also applaud Uber's efforts to make its app deaf-friendly. We also believe that Uber's background process for driver-partners is sufficiently comprehensive. With the recent election on Prop. 1 in Austin, we hope a solution between Austin and Uber can be worked out to ensure that economic opportunities for Deaf and Hard of Hearing driver-partners will return to Austin.

Uber and CSD remain committed to our partnership to create accessible opportunities for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people across the nation.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler said that Uber and Lyft are welcome to continue operating if they change their minds about complying with the newly required background check.