AMERICAN AIRLINES REFUSED TO ACCOMODATE BLIND EMPLOYEE, THEN FIRED HER

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

 

American Airlines refused to accommodate blind employee, then fired her: lawsuit

By Shambhavi Rimal

Updated September 29, 2025 4:00 PM

 

The EEOC is suing American Airlines in a federal lawsuit alleging that the Fort Worth-based airline refused to provide accommodation for a blind employee, then fired her, officials said.

 

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 U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

 

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 had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

 

Employee on unpaid leave for years before firing

 

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.”

 

More information from the EEOC on disability discrimination against individuals who are blind or visually impaired is online here.

 

This story was originally published September 29, 2025 at 3:39 PM.