Service animals: one feature, eight countries, eight sets of rules

Riders with service animals were being refused trips. I led the design of a feature that tells the driver in advance, with one version for the law of each of eight countries. After launch, cancellations fell sharply.

Live

8 countries

A woman wearing dark glasses, with a guide dog in a harness, opens the door of a car. A man stands behind her on the sidewalk.

Project details

Role: Senior Product Designer — Product Inclusion (design lead for the initiative)

Team: PMs, engineers, UX research, content design, data science, legal, operations, support, policy and disability organizations

Timeline: 12 months from discovery to pilot · launched in 2025

Impact: Cancellations for riders with service animals fell sharply; driver deactivations for service denials went down

Scope: End-to-end: problem framing, rider and driver flows, rules and copy for each market, pilot and rollout

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The problem

Refusing a rider because of a service animal is illegal in many countries. It still happened: riders were turned away at pickup, and drivers who refused could lose access to the platform. Both sides were arriving at the curb without the same information.

The rules also change from place to place, so one global flow would have been wrong somewhere.

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One model, one version per market

I defined one disclosure model for every market: the same states, the same moments, the same context for the driver. Then I adapted the rules and the wording to each country’s law.

The first rounds with legal took longest, until we found the right tone for the project. After that, each new market was a matter of translation and of adjusting to local law and to legal’s recommendations.

Rider and driver screens. The rider fills in an eligibility form and turns on a service animal setting. The driver sees, while waiting, that the rider travels with a service animal.

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What I did

Led design from discovery to pilot over 12 months, on the rider and the driver side.
Organized and facilitated a design workshop in 2022 with partners across the company, mapping the rider and driver journeys.
Defined a consistent way for riders to say they travel with a service animal, and the moment drivers see it.
Adapted rules and copy to each market with legal, revising until each version met local regulation.
Worked with disability organizations throughout.
Delivered design specs ready for accessibility and for engineering.

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Results

Cancellations for riders with service animals fell sharply after launch.
Driver deactivations for service denials went down.
Fewer accessibility-related support contacts.
Live in eight countries: the United States, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand.

Results are described by direction only; the figures are internal.

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Key learnings

Accessibility at scale requires governance, not just empathy.
Structured context reduces friction more effectively than reactive messaging.
Marketplace dynamics must be designed into the system from the start.

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🔒 Additional details

Country-specific flows and internal metrics are not shown in this public version. A deeper walkthrough is available upon request.