Cabs pass Lenny Zakim's daughter by as she waits in her wheelchair - Newton - Your Town - Boston.com

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By Erica Noonan, Globe Staff

On weekends, Zakim and her twin sister, Deena, often enjoy the student clubs in Allston and Brighton. This past New Year's Eve was no exception, and the young women and a friend, rang in 2010 at the White Horse Tavern on Brighton Avenue.

Around 2 a.m. on Jan. 1, Shari Zakim said, they emerged onto the sidewalk outside the club to hail a cab back to Deena's home in Allston. When the first empty cab passed her group by, they chalked it up to a busy night. But then another empty cab, then several more, drove right on by, she said.

Finally a car from Revere-based Top Cab, the city's second-largest cab provider, stopped, she said.
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But the ride never happened. The driver pulled over, and then, according to Shari Zakim, saw her wheelchair, locked his doors and drove off.

She was shocked and humiliated.

"It made me angry. I can transfer (from the wheelchair) very easily. The assumption was made that people in wheelchairs must not be independent."

She never got to show the driver that she lifts herself onto the seat and disassembles her own wheelchair without assistance. The wheels and seat can be placed next to her, as Zakim does when driving her own car, or stowed in the trunk like any other piece of luggage.

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