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An Amazon employee is suing the retail giant, accusing it of failing to accommodate her disabilities and leaving her on unpaid leave as she awaits work-from-home approval.
The case was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act against Amazon.com Services LLC.
Amazon representatives did not return requests for comment on Tuesday from The Indiana Lawyer.
An Amazon employee since 2012, plaintiff Rachel McDaniel began working from home full-time in 2025 after being diagnosed with migraine headaches, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder and sensory processing sensitivity, according to the lawsuit. Because of these disabilities, McDaniel is sensitive to certain stimuli common to Amazon warehouse offices like loud noises and bright overhead lighting.
In February, McDaniel was informed she needed to come back as part of the company’s return-to-office requirements.
That same week, McDaniel was evaluated by her doctor, who completed a form stating that she should work from home through next February. She used the form to submit a request to continue working from home, but the request was denied.
The company told McDaniel they could only offer in-office accommodations, such as blue-light glasses, an anti-glare screen, noise-cancelling headphones, earplugs, a dimmable lamp and intermittent time off. The company called being in the office “an essential part of your job duties,” according to court documents.
McDaniel counters, however, that none of her team members work at the same fulfillment center as her, at least half are assigned to corporate offices instead of fulfillment centers and that one person assigned to a fulfillment center has not been required to report there for in-person work.
In March, McDaniel submitted another request to work from home, but it was also denied. She was informed that the case would be closed by the end of the month as a “preference denial,” court documents state. Amazon extended the deadline but closed the case in mid-April, stating that McDaniel declined the accommodations offered to her.
McDaniel continued to seek accommodations that would work for both her and Amazon, including working from a corporate office or putting a monitoring system on her laptop as a condition of remote work. But she was required to seek further accommodation approval “beyond the determination of [Amazon’s] own Disability and Leave Services organization,” according to court documents.
Throughout the process, Amazon continued to demand her presence at the fulfillment center as the price of both accommodation and a promotion she was supposed to receive, the lawsuit states.
In May, Amazon required McDaniel to restart her accommodation request as a new case. That was then denied in June.
In total, McDaniel said Amazon denied McDaniel’s requests to continue working from home four separate times and at no time identified any undue hardship that the remote work would impose, according to court documents. Her “long-promised” promotion also was indefinitely delayed contingent upon her return to the office.
Amazon’s refusal to accommodate McDaniel’s disability forced her to take medical leave starting June 22, the lawsuit states. Her medical leave and short-term disability benefits ended on Aug. 23.
McDaniel is now suing Amazon for disability discrimination, failure to accommodate, retaliation, and interference and coercion under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
She’s asking the court to order Amazon to allow her to work remotely and award her compensatory damages.
The case is Rachel McDaniel v. Amazon.com Services LLC, 4:26-cv-00233-TWP-KMB.
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