The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging disability discrimination by two Portland companies.
The agency filed suit against construction software maker Viewpoint and recruiting company CampusPoint over the rejection of deaf job applicant, the agency announced Wednesday.
The case, filed in the U.S. District Court of Oregon, claims that in 2018 the two companies eliminated Indigo Matthew from a recruiting candidate pool because of an accommodation request Matthew made for an American Sign Language interpreter for an interview in a group setting.
According to the suit, Matthew, who has "profound hearing loss," can read lips one-on-one but requested the interpreter for the group interview. Matthew was a candidate for a product and pricing analyst position, according to the suit.
The EEOC claims the companies violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by rejecting a qualified candidate because of their disability. According to the suit, the agency claims the companies “erroneously assumed” that Matthew would require an interpreter full time if hired, even though such a request was not made.
Viewpoint and CampusPoint did not immediately provide comments on the suit.
“There are so many ways an individual can be accommodated in the workplace,” said EEOC senior trial attorney Teri Healy in a written statement. “The ADA requires employers to explore these options rather than insist that a job be performed in precisely the same manner that it has been performed in the past.”
According to the suit, there was an attempt to settle the case before litigation. The agency is seeking a jury trial, monetary damages and injunctive relief including training on anti-discrimination laws.
Viewpoint is based in Portland. The company was one of several high-profile software makers that emerged in the Portland region in the mid-2000s helping to establish a wave of startups and tech companies in the area that weren’t hardware based. It was acquired in 2018 by California-based Trimble Inc. (Nasdaq: TRMB) for $1.2 billion.
CampusPoint is a recruiting company with offices in Portland and Seattle. According to its website it fulfills entry-level staffing for clients in the Pacific Northwest. It works with college students and recent graduates to place them in jobs or paid internships.
