Hailing a taxi in your hometown or even in another city can be tough for a wheelchair user.  Many of the problems stem from discrimination or preconceptions of cab drivers concerning the ability to transfer the individual into the vehicle and stow away the wheelchair.  This results in disabled patrons being ignored when hailing a taxi.  Let’s face it, even if you called for a handicapped accessible cab, it could take quite a while before they arrive due to a lack of these specialized vehicles in a company’s fleet.  Waving down a taxi from a “chair” can prove fruitless.  I even resorted to asking an able-bodied person to hail a cab while I hid out of view and when the cab pulled up, I wheeled over and transferred in, breaking down my chair and not giving the cabbie a chance to argue.  I always hoped there would be an easier way.

Through a little bit of research on iTunes, I have found an application for your iPhone and iPod Touch (should you have WiFi access) that can help in overcoming these common problem.  This application is called Taxi Magic by RideCharge, Inc.  It is a free download on iTunes.  By using your iPhone or iPod Touch, you can book a taxi from your current location without the cabbie knowing you are a wheelchair user. Your devise contacts the taxi company’s dispatch center and sends a vehicle to your GPS location.  Should there be a problem making this connection, this application will provide you with phone numbers of several cab companies in your local area.  This service is available in twenty-five U.S. cities.  Cab for Me is another taxi application using the Android Operating System by Google on the T-Mobile G-1 device. 

I tried out the Taxi Magic application at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and found mixed results.  I was not able schedule a taxi through my device but I was given a list of cab companies to choose from with their respective phone numbers.