American Airlines to Pay $200,000 in EEOC Disability Discrimination Suit Following Termination of Blind Employee

FORT WORTH, Texas — American Airlines, Inc., a domestic and international air carrier headquartered in Texas, will pay $200,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.

According to the EEOC’S lawsuit, American Airlines failed to provide a reasonable accommodation to an employee at its Fort Worth location after she developed cortical blindness. The lawsuit alleged that the employee requested to use screen reader software to convert text and other information on computers into synthesized speech as a reasonable accommodation, which would allow her to use the company’s computer systems to perform her job duties. Alternatively, the employee requested to be transferred to another position, the suit said.

The lawsuit charged American Airlines with failing to take legally required steps to enable the employee to use the screen reader software for her job or help her find another reasonable accommodation, instead keeping her on unpaid, involuntary leave for almost four years and then firing her after failing to facilitate her return to work.

“Blind and otherwise visually impaired workers deserve every opportunity to put their skills and knowledge to work, make highly valuable contributions to our nation’s economy, and have rewarding careers,” said acting EEOC Dallas Regional Attorney Ronald L. Phillips. “The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits disability discrimination and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations, such as screen reader technology. There are numerous technical resources available to aid employers in their search for reasonable accommodations, including government rehabilitation agencies, non-profit organizations, technology consultants and the Job Accommodation Network.”

The type of conduct alleged in the EEOC’s complaint violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for the known disabilities of employees absent an undue hardship and prohibits employers from terminating employees on the basis of their disabilities, including when their terminations are caused by the employers’ failure to provide reasonable accommodation. The EEOC filed suit (U.S. EEOC v. American Airlines, Inc., Case No. 4:25-cv-01056-P) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.

EEOC Dallas District Director Travis Nicholson said, “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. Building accessibility into new systems from the start can help prevent similar barriers in the future.”

In addition to paying $200,000 in monetary relief to the blind employee involved in the case, under the two-year consent decree resolving this lawsuit, American Airlines also committed to integrating the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines into its development of new, accessible reservation software the company is projecting to launch in 2027. Upon implementation of its new reservation web application, American Airlines is required to conduct an accessibility audit of the software by a trained specialist and dedicate up to 120 hours of labor to remedy any barriers to accessibility for blind and visually impaired employee-users that may still exist.

American Airlines will also train its human resource employees whose job duties include responding to reasonable accommodation requests, post an employee notice about disability discrimination, and provide reports to the EEOC about relevant employee accommodation requests.

For more information on disability discrimination against individuals who are blind or visually impaired, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/visual-disabilities-workplace-and-americans-disabilities-act. For more information on disability discrimination, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/disability-discrimination.

The lawsuit was initiated by the EEOC’s Dallas District Office, which has jurisdiction over a substantial part of Texas and parts of southern New Mexico.

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. For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s employment antidiscrimination effort. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov.