In 2018, the claimant applied for a contractor position at Guidewire Software Inc., a software publisher based in Foster City. She claimed that she was a qualified applicant and that she was invited to participate in a phone screening for the contractor position of user experience designer. She asked to have an in-person interview to accommodate her limited ability to clearly hear sounds via telephone and computer, as her cochlear implants limited the clarity of sound coming through telephones and computers. Instead, Guidewire suggested using technology known as “Relay Conference Captioning” and using sign language as a backup. When the applicant looked into the suggested alternative, she found that there was a waiting period to set up an account to use the Relay Conference Captioning technology. She immediately informed the hiring manager about the waiting period and asked about an alternative captioning service built into WebEx, the product Guidewire had already planned to use for part of the interview. She also noted that she does not use sign language. Guidewire never responded to her email, and it conducted screening interviews with four candidates who did not request reasonable accommodation. Guidewire ultimately offered the position to one of those candidates. The applicant filed a claim with plaintiff U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which first attempted to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its voluntary conciliation process. The EEOC sued Guidewire Software Inc., alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Representatives of Guidewire Software denied the company discriminated against the applicant., The EEOC sought to have the applicant recover emotional distress damages and other unspecified damages.