CHICAGO (LN) — Walmart agreed to pay $0.23 million and furnish other relief to settle a disability hiring discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency announced Wednesday.
According to the EEOC’s suit, a deaf applicant applied online for a stocking position at a Walmart in Decatur, Illinois. When an associate responsible for screening applicants from Walmart reached out to him to set up an interview, the deaf applicant requested an American Sign Language interpreter.
Walmart’s screener said she would work on getting the interpreter but failed to follow up, even after he called back again to check on the status of his interview. Instead, three other hearing applicants were hired for the stocking position around the same time, and Walmart never contacted the deaf applicant again.
The company’s alleged conduct violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.
The district court rejected Walmart’s motion for summary judgment, and the case was set for trial in June 2026.
In addition to the monetary relief, the consent decree settling the suit provides that Walmart in Decatur is enjoined from failing to provide reasonable accommodation to applicants. The Decatur store must keep a contact list of ASL interpreters posted, and those in the Decatur store involved with the hiring process must undergo training on how to accommodate deaf applicants and employees.
“This is an outstanding result for our litigation efforts,” said acting EEOC General Counsel Catherine L. Eschbach. “The EEOC remains committed to holding employers accountable and protecting the rights of applicants with disabilities from discrimination process, including the right to a reasonable accommodation, such as an ASL interpreter for a job interview.”
Eschbach added that the relief is “particularly important because it is how we keep the workforce accessible to persons with disabilities, who can be valuable and productive employees when the door is open to them.”