Largest HR Association’s Latest Lawsuit Proves Disrespect for Disabled People
The latest in a series of lawsuits shows that discriminating against disabled people, does, in fact, come with consequences
A December 2025 lawsuit alleges that the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) rescinded an employment offer to a candidate who requested her service dog accompany her to the office as an accommodation for her Type 1 Diabetes. In addition to rescinding her offer, the lawsuit alleges that SHRM questioned her need for the service animal. These allegations are deeply troubling and demonstrate a profound lack of respect for disabled people, their legal protections, and accessibility processes.
Employers who withdraw an employment offer as a result of an accommodation request are in violation of Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which protects the rights of employees with disabilities who request accommodations.
Understanding and successfully managing disability accommodations should be foundational knowledge for HR professionals. The “interactive process” touches several key areas of their work — hiring, onboarding, employee relations, performance management, worker safety, and legal compliance, to name a few.
SHRM is lauded as the world’s largest HR association with almost 340,000 members. They offer two HR Certification programs for people seeking to hone their skills and have hundreds of resources on accommodations and the ADA — making the allegations in this lawsuit even more ironic and alarming.
This lawsuit is the latest in a long line of issues that SHRM has faced recently — much due to its own workings. It comes less than two weeks after a jury ordered SHRM to pay $11.5M in damages in a high profilerace discrimination and retaliation trial. Twelve days before that, Business Insider published an exposé about SHRM’s toxic workplace culture. All of these closely follow a July 2025 decision to wipe inclusion from its upcoming “SHRM Inclusion” conference and instead rebrand to “SHRM Blueprint,” a decision that outraged many in the field. This series of events shows that intentionally de-emphasizing DEI, does, in fact, come with consequences.
SHRM is not the only organization that has been sued for disability discrimination in employment. Apple, Walmart, Wendy’s, and O’Reilly Auto have all been in the news for disability discrimination employment lawsuits, including seven cases highlighted in EEOC press releases in the past month alone.
It’s a theme that we as accessibility consultants see all too often: organizations do not see accessibility as a core value. Even if an organization is legally required to follow accessibility processes, they remain resistant. This often stems from anti-disability mindsets, which also manifests as:
- Treating disabled people with suspicion, such as questioning a person’s motives for requesting accommodations;
- Creating punitive sick leave policies that are overly administrative;
- Insisting that non-disabled professionals understand disability experiences better than disabled people themselves;
- Believing that accomplishing accessibility is a heavy burden;
- Approaching access as a “nice to have” add-on rather than a necessity.
"It’s a theme that we as accessibility consultants see all too often: organizations that do not see accessibility as a core value."
The reality could not be more opposite. Accessibility is an essential for every function of a business. It is incredibly valuable. Of course, the primary reason to implement accessibility is to support disabled employees in their roles. But a side effect of valuing accessibility is the creation of more accessible, welcoming, and inclusive spaces for everyone. Working through accessibility processes can be complex and requires some to break through limiting mindsets. That challenge creates stronger teams who can appreciate the value of accessibility.
