American Airlines will pay $200,000 and accept two years of federal monitoring after the EEOC found it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by refusing to accommodate an employee who developed cortical blindness. The worker, based at the airline’s Fort Worth headquarters, asked for screen reader software that converts on-screen text to speech, or a transfer to another role. American did neither: it placed her on unpaid, involuntary leave for nearly four years, then terminated her without ever facilitating a return to work.
The settlement is the latest in a run of ADA and workplace-accommodation cases moving through federal courts and agencies this year, from a Fourth Circuit panel that trimmed a $22 million ADA verdict against Wells Fargo last week to Apple’s own $150,000 EEOC settlement over a different protected class entirely. What sets this one apart is what the consent decree requires beyond the check: American must build Web Content Accessibility Guidelines into its new reservation software ahead of a planned 2027 launch, commission an outside accessibility audit once that software ships, dedicate up to 120 labor hours to fixing remaining barriers, and train HR staff specifically on handling accommodation requests.
“Blind and otherwise visually impaired workers deserve every opportunity to put their skills and knowledge to work” and have rewarding careers, said Ronald L. Phillips, Acting EEOC Dallas Regional Attorney. Travis Nicholson, EEOC Dallas District Director, added: “American has agreed to incorporate critical web accessibility standards into the development of new software, helping ensure its technology is accessible to employees with disabilities.”
The original insight for HR tech buyers: the EEOC did not just fine American for a bad HR decision. It wrote a specific technical standard, WCAG compliance, into a legal settlement covering internal software the company has not even built yet. That is a preview of what reasonable accommodation increasingly means once HR and operational tools move to screen- and voice-based interfaces: a procurement decision made years before a disability claim is filed can still become the evidence inside one.
Source: EEOC
