{"id":115152,"date":"2025-10-02T01:40:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T20:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviationa2z.com\/?p=115152"},"modified":"2025-10-01T23:38:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T18:08:46","slug":"american-airlines-lawsuit-for-firing-visually-impaired-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviationa2z.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/02\/american-airlines-lawsuit-for-firing-visually-impaired-agent\/","title":{"rendered":"American Airlines Faces Lawsuit for Firing Visually Impaired Reservations Agent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TEXAS-<\/strong> American Airlines (AA)<\/a> is now facing a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that claims the airline discriminated against a former reservations agent after she lost her eyesight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the complaint, the employee had worked at one of American\u2019s call centers until 2012, when she suffered an injury that caused permanent cortical blindness\u2014a condition affecting the brain\u2019s visual processing rather than the eyes themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"American
Photo: By Richard Silagi – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=76300185<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

American Airlines Lawsuit for Firing Employee<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After her injury, American Airlines placed the agent on medical leave while she recovered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she asked to return to work, she requested to use a screen\u2011reader program known as JAWS (Job Access With Speech) to navigate the airline\u2019s computer systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under U.S. disability law (the Americans with Disabilities Act), an employer must provide \u201creasonable accommodations\u201d to a qualified employee, unless doing so causes undue hardship. The EEOC contends that using JAWS in her role would have been such an accommodation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

American Airlines reportedly responded that it had never before accommodated a fully blind person in that job, and told her that it was \u201cimpossible\u201d to do so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the company explored alternative roles and tested compatibility over 18 months, it never proactively tried to integrate custom scripts or other workarounds with JAWS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also requested transfers to other roles, like baggage resolution or customer service. But those requests were turned down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, after years on leave and amid a hiring freeze during the pandemic, American terminated her employment in October 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"American
Photo: Aero Icarus | Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n