(Matthew Doarnberger, Headline USA) A former Google employee who is black and deaf has filed a lawsuit against the tech giant, claiming was denied the necessary accommodations to adequately perform her job, Newsmax reported.
The employee, Jalon Hall, said Google used her as a “poster child” for their commitment to diversity since she was the first deaf, black woman hired in the company’s history.
Despite Google’s championing of Hall after her hiring, she now makes the claim that the necessities required to meet the standards of her job were not provided.
Specifically, the managers at Google decided that having a sign-language interpreter threatened the confidentiality of the team’s work.
“I was thinking, ‘What did I get myself into? Do they not believe I’m deaf? I need my interpreter all day. Why are you robbing me of the chance of doing my job?'” Hall told Wired.
Without access to an interpreter, Hall struggled to meet the standard set by Google for her position. This involved reviewing a total of 75 videos within an eight-hour work day.
“I felt humiliated, realizing that I would not grow in my career,” she said.
She eventually sued Google in December after filing three complaints with the human resources department over racial and disability discrimination.
Hall was initially contacted by a recruiter at Google back in 2020 about joining a new in-house content moderation team called Wolverine. The recruiter informed her that a sign-language interpreter would be provided, along with other accommodations for her deafness.
Hall said that, following her hiring, Google often touted her as a symbol of diversity on their social-media sites.
“Google is using me to make them look inclusive for the deaf community and the overall disability community, in reality, they need to do better,” she told Wired.
Google responded to Hall’s lawsuit by saying that the case should be thrown out on procedural grounds, but the company did not deny the claims that she has made.
