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EEOC settles lawsuit on behalf of vision-impaired job applicant

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WOODBRIDGE, N.J.—A consulting firm agreed to pay $45,000 to settle a disability lawsuit filed by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in which it allegedly withdrew a job offer to an applicant after learning he was vision-impaired.

The EEOC said Tuesday that RCC Consultants Inc., a Woodbridge, N.J.-based telecommunications engineering and consulting company, failed to hire Stanton Woodcock for a managing consultant position because of his disability, ocular albinism.

The inherited condition, in which the eyes lack melanin pigment, has led to a variety of vision problems that substantially limit Mr. Woodcock’s ability to see, according to the EEOC.

The EEOC said that after Mr. Woodcock was interviewed for the position at RCC’s Glen Allen, Va., facility in October 2007, the firm offered him the job, but rescinded its offer later that month when it learned he could not drive because of his disability.

Lynette A. Barnes, regional attorney for the EEOC’s district office in Charlotte, N.C., said in a statement, “Employers need to remember that a person who can perform the job he or she seeks cannot be denied hire simply because of a disability.”

An RCC spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.