Heart of Texas Goodwill Industries to Pay $75,000 in EEOC Disability Discrimination Lawsuit

WACO, Texas – Heart of Texas Goodwill Industries, Inc., a Texas-based non-profit retailer, will pay $75,000 and provide other equitable relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.

The EEOC’s lawsuit charged that Heart of Texas Goodwill refused to consider an applicant who is deaf for a production team member position at its store in Killeen, Texas. The EEOC’s complaint alleged that a manager told the applicant that she was not eligible for a position because she could not speak or hear, and that those were requirements of the job.

The EEOC said that the applicant asked the manager whether she could be accommodated, including through use of a cellphone to communicate. The applicant also allegedly informed the manager that she had worked in an identical position at another Goodwill store. The EEOC said that the manager told the applicant she would talk to the human resources department to see what could be done, but that no one followed up with the applicant and she was not hired for the role.

Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits employers from making hiring decisions based on an individual’s disability or need for reasonable accommodation, and requires employers to make accommodations absent an undue hardship. The EEOC filed suit, Civil Action No. 6:24-cv-00498, in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Waco Division, after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.

In addition to the monetary relief, under the three-year consent decree resolving the lawsuit, entered by U.S. District Judge Derek T. Gilliland on April 9, 2025, Heart of Texas Goodwill will revise and distribute an ADA policy and provide ADA training to employees with human resources responsibilities as well as employees involved in recruitment and/or training. The decree also requires Heart of Texas Goodwill to provide applicants who are deaf or hard of hearing an opportunity to specify a preferred method of communication, including sign language interpretation, during the application process.

“The EEOC is pleased that we were able to obtain monetary relief for this applicant and that Heart of Texas Goodwill has agreed to implement robust training and complaint procedures to improve the workplace for applicants and employees who are deaf or hard of hearing,” said EEOC Dallas District Director Travis Nicholson. “The resolution of this lawsuit signals to other nonprofit employers that they too must abide by the ADA, which protects employees with disabilities from discrimination at every step of the employment process.”

EEOC trial attorney Adriana Rodriguez added, “The resolution of this case includes an important measure that requires Heart of Texas Goodwill to inform applicants and employees of their rights under the ADA, including the reasonable accommodation of sign language interpretation when needed.”

For more information about disability discrimination against individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/hearing-disabilities-workplace-and-americans-disabilities-act. For more information on disability discrimination generally, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/disability-discrimination.

The San Antonio Field Office is part of the EEOC’s Dallas District, which is responsible for addressing discrimination charges and conducting agency litigation in parts of Texas and parts of 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 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. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.