[IL-Talk] Contract terminated because of accommodations

[dan.tevelde at comcast.net]

Hi Ayoub,

I'm sorry this happened. This sounds like an ADA Title III violation. You
have a write to whatever accommodations you need unless an employer proves
that the accommodations would be an undue burden. You might want to contact
the NFB national office and speak with someone in the legal department. You
might consider filing a complaint with the Justice Department or contacting
a local Illinois advocacy organization like Equip for Equality. There may be
other options but since I'm not a lawyer, I don't know what other advice to
give you. I hope you can get the situation straightened out. Whatever you
do, keep records of e-mail and phone calls so you can document your
communication with the company.

Thanks,
Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: IL-Talk <il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Ayoub Zurikat via
IL-Talk
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2024 10:54 AM
To: il-talk at nfbnet.org
Cc: Ayoub Zurikat <ayoub.zurikat.nfb at gmail.com>
Subject: [IL-Talk] Contract terminated because of accommodations

My dear Illinois family greetings,
It's been a while, but I wanna share this with you so that no one is forced
to endure what I had to endure for the past six months. About six months
ago, exactly on the 29th of April, a recruiter/headhunter from ERC path
light reached out to me and told me that the company was impressed with my
resume and that they would love to add me to their team. I was hesitant, but
they made me a good offer, so I left the job that I had and joined their
team. During the interview process, I made it abundantly clear that I was a
blind person, and that if the company wants to recruit me, they need to make
sure that there are reasonable and sufficient accommodations For me. The
recruiter told me that the company prides itself on being all inclusive. To
make a very long story short. It became very clear that the
software/platform they use to plug in all client related info simply does
not work with any screen reader. Even at that stage, I told the
accommodation coordinator to be honest with me and let me know if they would
be able to make the accommodations. Six months, six months of emails back
and forth, promises, more emails, complete isolation, even striking down
different ideas that I had, and then the company contacted me last week to
let me know that they will be terminating my contract because they cannot
provide me any accommodations. For six months I used to go to an empty
office at 9 am, sit and do nothing until 4:30 pm and then leave. Not only
that, but during that contract termination call the coordinator informed me
that the platform simply do not accommodate for blind people. In other
words, no blind person can work at ERC pathlight.. I'm sending this out
because I know that there are a lot of therapists on this list, and I just
wanted to save you the pain of having to go through this. The company did
not even give me a severance package. They are just going to pay the last
two weeks of my employment and that is it. 
Maybe I am naive, I don't know,but I simply did not think that a company
devoted to the mental health and well-being of humans can behave in such a
manner.
Anyways, I hope that all of you have a blessed Monday.
Best regards
 
_______________________________________________
IL-Talk mailing list
IL-Talk at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/il-talk_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
IL-Talk:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/il-talk_nfbnet.org/dan.tevelde%40comcast.n
et