Yale delivered the wrong desk, disability discrimination lawsuit alleges

She filed a formal written complaint with Yale’s staff accommodations manager on August 28, 2024, according to the filing. It says the reply the next day restated the policy and offered a meeting, that she wrote back with questions and asked to meet, and that the meeting never happened. The complaint alleges no Yale HR representative spoke with her directly about her concerns before she left. 

On August 30, 2024, the filing says, a Yale Health clinician recorded “new onset of severe back pain, likely due to poor ergonomic setup at work” and referred her to workers’ compensation. She alleges remote work was approved only after she filed that claim, and not because of her medical documentation or her internal complaint. By September 11, 2024, the complaint says, Yale Employee Health had limited her to no more than two hours of on-site work a day. 

A desk arrived on November 13, 2024. The complaint says it was not the model her doctors had specified and that it came without consulting her or her medical providers. She alleges Yale then cited a vendor-approval policy that had gone unmentioned across five months of correspondence, told her another medical evaluation would be required to get the correct desk, and described her documentation as “out of date.” The prescribed desk never arrived while she was actively employed, the filing says. 

A week later, on November 20, 2024, construction drilling outside her office triggered a severe episode, according to the complaint. She began continuous medical leave on December 9, 2024. The filing says she submitted her resignation on April 15, 2025, effective June 15, 2025, citing medical reasons that prevented her return, and alleges her physicians had determined she could no longer safely live alone in Connecticut. 

The allegations have not been tested in court, and no judge has ruled.