EEOC SUES HOBBY LOBBY FOR DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION
Company Refused to Allow Service Dog as Reasonable Accommodation, Federal Agency Charges

ST. LOUIS – Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., a national arts-and-crafts retailer, violated federal law when it refused to reasonably accommodate a cashier at its Olathe, Kansas store by allowing her to use a service dog and then fired her because of her disabilities, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed on July 19, 2022.

According to the suit, the employee advised her manager that she needed to bring her fully trained service dog to work to assist her with symptoms caused by PTSD, anxiety and depression. The company’s human resources representative met with the employee to discuss her request but concluded the dog would present a safety concern because a coworker or customer might be allergic to or trip over the dog, or the dog might break something. Even though Hobby Lobby allows customers to bring service dogs and other dogs to the Olathe store, managers were unwilling to allow the employee’s service dog in the store to see whether there was an actual safety concern. Hobby Lobby ultimately terminated the employee when she could not work without her service dog.

Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination based on disability. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., Civil Action No. 2:22-cv-02258) in U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement via its conciliation process. The EEOC seeks back pay, compensatory and punitive damages and reinstatement for the employee, as well as injunctive relief to prevent future discrimination.

“Millions of Americans are successful, productive workers despite having mental health conditions that can be debilitating,” said Andrea G. Baran, regional attorney for the EEOC’s St. Louis District office. “The ADA ensures equal employment opportunity for these individuals, including those who are assisted by service animals.”

David Davis, acting director of the EEOC’s St Louis District Office, added, “Service animals assist people with many types of disabilities – from vision and mobility impairments to seizure disorders and mental health conditions – to live and work independently. Employers must not reject service animals, or any other reasonable accommodation, based on stereotypes or assumptions regarding the safety or effectiveness of the accommodation.”

According to the company’s website, Hobby Lobby is the world’s largest privately-owned arts-and-crafts retailer, with over 43,000 employees working in over 900 stores in forty-seven states.

For more information on disability discrimination, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/disability-discrimination.

The Southeast ADA Center is sharing this information with you. 

WEBINAR: Research Report Launch: Small Business Ownership by People with Disabilities: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES 

July 28, 2022 2:00-3:30 p.m. Eastern time 

Zoom webinar registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_voKqTZC1SUeu1tpwFpPqKw 

Host: National Disability Institute (NDI) 

National Disability Institute is committed to full inclusion for everyone. Please note: Real-time captioning will be provided for this webinar. For other accommodation requests, questions about the webinar or the registration process, please contact Hope Price at [email protected]. 

Description More than 62 percent of people with disabilities are outside the labor force, making entrepreneurship and small business ownership viable employment options. However, they are often hindered by limited access to affordable startup capital and a scarcity of supports, services and programs tailored to their unique needs and challenges. 

Nearly two million U.S. business owners with disabilities often must overcome unique barriers to entrepreneurship as they strive to compete alongside their non-disabled counterparts in a business world that does not fully recognize their abilities and resilience. 

Learn about the findings and recommendations from the report, Small Business Ownership by People with Disabilities: Challenges and Opportunities, and how the ecosystem that supports entrepreneurs and small business owners with disabilities can be improved and expanded. This report includes national data, information gathered from disability and entrepreneurial support organizations and the lived experience of entrepreneurs with disabilities. 

Beth Daly-Torres, Executive Director with the Office of Disability Inclusion at JPMorgan Chase will explain why the investment in this research is important and vitally needed. 

Three entrepreneurs with disabilities will share their experiences in building and growing their businesses, their challenges and successes, including how they navigated gaps in the support system. 

- Tiffani Martin who is the founder and CEO of JancynCo and Visio Tech. She has a degree in entrepreneurship. Tiffani believes that individuals with disabilities are often put into the box of low expectations that they should survive on their disability benefits so they lack the resources and support to start their own business. She believes the ability is there, but the support is lacking, even more so for those at the intersection of gender and ethnicity. 

- Alvaro Silberstein is the founder and CEO of Wheel the World. A native of Chile, Alvaro came to the United States because of winning a scholarship for his master’s degree to the University of California, Berkeley. His ambition, as a person with a disability who is a wheelchair user, is to find ways to innovate in the disability space and identify solutions to problems people with disabilities face every day. 

- Chioma Oruh, Ph.D., is the founder, principal consultant, and parent coach of Chi Bornfree. Chioma has a passion for family-centered practices, primarily because of her own lived experiences as a Black African immigrant mother raising two young sons with autism. 

The Pacific ADA Center newsletter is now available on their website.  

Good afternoon! This request from a Syracuse University Student is being shared with you by the Southeast ADA Center.

Subject: Uber's and Lyft's Lack of Accessibility

Hello,

I’m a law student at Syracuse University and a RA at BBI. I’m working on state legislation to require companies like Uber and Lyft to become accessible to people who use power wheelchairs. As part of my research, I hope to gather data to show how many people who use power wheelchairs would use Uber or Lyft. I’ve included the link to a short survey below. Would you share it with the people you serve?

https://forms.gle/P49Qj22AiwZsaLTi6

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you,

Kate Battoe
JD Candidate 2025
Research Assistant (DRBA Project)
Burton Blatt Institute

[email protected] 

Dineen Hall, Suite 453
950 Irving Avenue
Syracuse, NY 13244-6070
www.syracuse.edu 

Today the Department of Justice entered a multi-million-dollar settlement with Uber to resolve a lawsuit alleging that Uber illegally discriminated by charging wait time fees to riders who, because of disability, need more time to board an Uber car. Under the agreement, Uber will offer millions of dollars in compensation to over 65,000 Uber riders who were charged the discriminatory fees due to a disability. Uber will also waive wait time fees for all Uber riders who certify that they (or someone they frequently travel with) need more time to get in an Uber because of a disability. The press release is available here. To find out more about this lawsuit, agreement, or the ADA, visit ada.gov or call the Justice Department’s toll-free ADA information line at 1-800-514-0301 or 1-800-514-0383 (TDD).