A broad coalition of service-animal users, disability advocates and legal groups urged the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development to advance H.2066, a bill that would impose civil fines on transportation-network-company drivers who deny rides to riders with legitimate service animals.

Katarina Torres Radicek, a community organizer at the Boston Center for Independent Living, said the bill would authorize fines (first-offense and escalating penalties) to deter drivers from refusing rides to people who use service animals. “This bill will enable the state to impose fines…on drivers who refuse to give rides to these individuals,” she told the committee.

Several guide-dog users described frequent last-minute cancellations or outright refusals when a driver saw a service animal. Carl Richardson, a constituent and long-time guide-dog user, said he filed complaints with multiple agencies after being denied and received little meaningful enforcement. “I filed a lawsuit against both the MBTA and Uber,” he said, and described a lengthy, protracted response process.

Kim Charlson, executive director of the Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library and former president of the American Council of the Blind, said rideshare denial rates have “quadrupled” in recent years and that platform transparency and enforcement are insufficient. Christina Constant, a legislative aide who said she experienced 21 cancellations over nine months on one platform, described being left in the rain and arriving late to work because of driver cancellations.

Advocates argued that existing remedies at MCAD and federal agencies are slow, that drivers often cannot be identified by riders, and that settlements and company policies have not sufficiently deterred wrongdoing. Thomas Murphy of the Disability Law Center said the bill would create meaningful disincentives and promote equal access under federal and Massachusetts law.

Witnesses and organizational leaders urged the committee to report H.2066 favorably and to consider complementary measures including mandatory platform training, data transparency, and clearer enforcement paths.

Next steps: the hearing produced testimony in support; committee action on the bill was not taken during the session.