Deaf-mute Yandex taxi driver was allowed to work after public intervention in Ufa

In Ufa, the Yandex-taxi system blocked the deaf-mute driver Salavat Salikhov having added him to the "blacklist" of carriers.

Since October 9, the 43-year-old father of three children, two of whom are adopted, has been unemployed.

A lawyer specializing in protecting the rights of hard of hearing people, Nina Romanovich, joined the case.

After the petition, created in his support, which has gained more than 50 thousand signatures, the company unblocked his access to the system.

However, the driver cannot receive his salary of more than 50 thousand rubles - the funds are credited to his account, but Salavat Salikhov cannot withdraw them.

The man has been working as a taxi driver since 2015. Nina Romanovich reports that she visited Yandex several times with a demand to open access to the system for Salikhov, but the company continued to call the hard of hearing person to check him.

"He physically cannot answer with his voice," the lawyer sighed.

According to some reports, on Monday, November 23, the situation should have been resolved, but so far, the lawyer does not have documents confirming payments, and the petition has received 57 thousand signatures for 17 hours.

Salavat Salikhov worked at UMPO before working in a taxi.

"I bought a car with a car loan, pasted it over with Yandex symbols to work in a taxi service. I must pay 24 thousand rubles monthly to cover my debt. I have two children, 16 and 10 years old (the eldest daughter is 30 years old), I help my mother. Every day I carry out orders from 3 to 5.5 thousand rubles, I practically do not have rest," the driver told the Bashinform News Agency.

In response to the Bashinform's inquiry, Yandex replied that the company had grounds for conducting a thorough check (telemetry data and user complaints).

"The check has now been completed, following its results, the driver has been given back access to the service, and the downtime has been compensated for," Svetlana Voronina, Yandex communications manager for Russia and the CIS said.