Despite the longstanding history of the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers are still failing to follow the law. In 2014, Alina Sorling, a veteran food service technician with over a decade of experience at Dignity Health’s hospital cafeteria, suddenly became blind. Ms. Sorling went on medical leave and successfully worked with the California Department of Rehabilitation to re-master everyday tasks, including using nonvisual techniques for cooking and proficiency with knives and hot grills. Instead of allowing her to work, Dignity Health fired her because it believed a blind person could not safely work in a kitchen.
Category: Litigation
In 2015, Tina Thomas, who is blind, tried to book a trip with Greyhound’s website, but her text-to-speech software couldn’t interpret Greyhound’s site. When she called instead, she was charged a “convenience fee” for booking by phone — even though she explained she could not use the website. Earlier this year, she tried again, but […]
We previously posted about how accessible mobile apps can greatly benefit blind people and how the ridesharing revolution is no exception. Earlier this year, in May 2016, the popular ridesharing services, Uber and Lyft, stopped serving Austin after the city passed an ordinance requiring fingerprint background checks by way of a contentious ballot initiative. Many […]
Ridesharing platforms such as Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar have the capacity to greatly improve transportation services for blind passengers. Now, blind people can use a smart phone equipped with text-to-speech to independently summon a driver, learn details such as the name of their dispatched driver, the estimated time of arrival, the amount of their […]
Alongside the Legal Aid Society Employment Law Center of San Francisco, TRE Legal filed a class action complaint in federal court against the Marriott hotel chain for its discriminatory treatment of blind employees and applicants. The complaint alleges that Marriott discriminates against blind and disabled employees by requiring its managers to use an inaccessible configuration […]