by Kevin Burton
American Airlines violated federal law by not providing reasonable accommodation to a former employee who is blind, according to multiple published reports.
Those of us in the blind community know this to be a common story, with the names, dates and places being the only things changing. And whether you are blind or sighted, corporate America cares about its bottom line, not your bottom, just so you know.
“A federal lawsuit has been filed against American Airlines alleging the Fort Worth-based airline refused to provide accommodation for a blind employee, then fired her,” wrote reporter Shambhavi Rimal in the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
“The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a federal lawsuit alleges that the airline refused to provide accommodation for a blind employee, then fired her, officials said.”
The former American Airlines employee is reservations representative Etha K. Littlejohn, according to law.com.
“The lawsuit was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, according to a news release from the EEOC”.
“‘American Airlines violated the Americans With Disabilities Act when it refused to provide reasonable accommodation for a blind reservations representative’, the lawsuit states.”
“The federal law requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for workers with disabilities unless doing so would cause undue hardship. The law also prohibits employers from firing workers because of their disabilities, including when the termination results from a failure to provide accommodation, according to the EEOC news release.”
American Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to the report.
“The employee, who developed cortical blindness, requested screen-reader software to convert text and other computer information into speech so she could perform her job duties and, as an alternative, asked to be transferred to another position, according to the lawsuit.”
“The lawsuit alleges that American Airlines kept the employee on unpaid leave for nearly four years and then fired her, instead of allowing her to use screen-reader software or finding another reasonable accommodation for her disability, EEOC officials said in the release.”
“The Americans with Disabilities Act mandates that employers must act diligently, in cooperative dialogue with disabled workers, to identify and provide reasonable accommodations for those workers’ known disabilities, absent undue hardship,” EEOC Acting Dallas Regional Attorney Ronald L. Phillips said in the release. “Employers violate their workers’ civil rights when they fail to provide required reasonable accommodations or unreasonably delay providing such accommodations, and the EEOC will hold such employers accountable.”
“Screen reader software such as JAWS (Job Access with Speech) has long been available and successfully integrated into America’s workplaces,” EEOC Dallas District Office Director Travis Nicholson said. “When an employee or applicant requests that form of accommodation, the employer is expected to engage in an interactive process to determine how the tools available can be integrated into the employer’s workplace and applied to the performance of essential job functions.”
“The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to investigate and litigate against businesses and other private sector employers for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination,” according to the EEOC website.
“ For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division; the EEOC is responsible for investigating charges against state and local government employers before referring them to DOJ for potential litigation. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s employment antidiscrimination effort.”
American Airlines of course, can easily absorb whatever fine it may eventually incur. Meanwhile, given the American government’s hostility to minorities and the disabled, one must wonder how long the EEOC will have its antidiscrimination mandate.
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