Pearson Education to Pay $150,000 in EEOC Disability Discrimination Suit

NEWARK, N.J. - Educational publishing company Pearson Education, Inc. will pay $150,000 and provide other injunctive relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.

According to the EEOC's lawsuit, Pearson required employees to use online platforms to access information about their benefits, leave and training, but failed to make these platforms, replete with technical issues, accessible to employees with visual impairments. Pearson also failed to provide visually impaired employees who use screen reading software with necessary reasonable accommodations to enable equal access to the platforms and trainings on par with non-visually impaired employees, the EEOC said.

"Ensuring that blind and other visually impaired employees can access the same benefits and workplace training as their peers is not optional-it is a fundamental obligation under federal law, absent undue hardship," said Kimberly A. Cruz, regional attorney for the EEOC's New York District. "When an employer uses online systems for benefits, leave or training, accessibility cannot be an afterthought. Technology that shuts out employees with disabilities deprives them of equal opportunity both to succeed in the workplace and to access the benefits they have earned."

Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires employers to provide accommodations to employees that allow them to enjoy equal access to employee benefits and training as employees without disabilities, absent undue hardship. The EEOC filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (Civil Action No. 2:25-cv-12214-CCC-JBC), after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.

Arlean Nieto, acting director of the EEOC's New York District, added, "The EEOC is committed to enforcing the ADA and holding employers accountable for failing to provide employees with disabilities equal access to benefits and reasonable accommodations in the workplace."

In addition to the $150,000 in monetary relief, the three-year consent decree resolving the lawsuit requires Pearson to engage a web accessibility consultant to audit the online benefit platforms and training modules used by employees, make modifications and fixes that ensure these platforms and trainings are accessible to those employees with vision-related impairments; provide annual training focused on web accessibility issues and accommodations for human resources personnel; compliance-related reporting to the EEOC; and the posting of a notice in the workplace informing employees of the settlement and their rights under federal anti-discrimination law.

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

Pearson Education is a part of London-headquartered Pearson llc, with many locations in North America.

The EEOC's New York District Office has jurisdiction over New York, northern New Jersey, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to investigate and litigate against businesses and other private sector employers for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government's employment antidiscrimination effort. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov .