Deaf job applicant wins $225K settlement over discrimination

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Portland, Oregon, software company and its staffing agency will each pay $112,500 to a deaf job applicant who said they refused to hire him because he requested a sign-language interpreter at a group job interview.

Viewpoint Construction Software’s technology helps contractors plan and manage large projects. Its recruiting firm, Seattle-based CampusPoint Corp., focuses on connecting companies with job applicants just out of school.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the firms last year on behalf of Indigo Matthew, a Portland man who applied to work as a product and pricing analyst in 2018, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

The EEOC alleged that Matthew passed an initial screening and requested an American Sign Language interpreter for a group interview at Viewpoint.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/technology-portland-oregon-business-discrimination-d56839e69da1c104aae7b63229fe9ec3

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[ck4829]

1. K&R

[usonian]

2. I hope they put it in writing rather than just making a phone call. nt

[FakeNoose]

3. Many cellphones and tablets have speech-to-text apps that are pretty good

It would have been so easy to provide this applicant with a speech-to-text app, and they could have saved themselves a lot of dough and bad publicity.

Short demo:
https://www.android.com/static/videos/pages/live-transcribe/live-transcribe_720p.mp4

More info link:
https://www.android.com/accessibility/live-transcribe/

[SWBTATTReg]

4. Yes! And so many shows, etc. now have CC available too. It is such a relief to me to have CC

available. While not 100% across the board, it is still far more prevalent that even 10 years ago. Literally 30-20 years ago, I had to buy closed caption boxes that took the audio feed from my TV, and CC'ed it. I still, by the way, kept the CC box. You never know when I might need it again.

[imavoter]

5. The differently abled person gets to use the method of adaptive item/device they need

If he needs or wants a sign interpreter, that's
what he gets.

Just like my husband got to choose what
kind of wheelchair he used.

That's how this works.
You don't get to tell people what they need.

[Hortensis]

6. He requested a sign language interpreter. Whoops, just saw Imavoter's post.

As said. WE, liberal Democrats, were behind codifying these rights into LAW because they were badly needed. Employers are required to know and comply with existing law.

Perhaps that law needs to be tweaked given new technology. If it hasn't been already?

An app would be much more convenient and inexpensive and in those respects valuable for encouraging and enabling employers to decide to consider, rather than find a way to avoid, deaf applicants. A good law would retain the rights of applicants to ask for sign language interpretation when there was cause.