Judges to revisit deaf-worker case

United Parcel Service Inc. will get a new hearing on whether the Atlanta-based company violated federal law by barring hearing-impaired employees from driving smaller trucks.

A full panel of judges of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco agreed to rehear the case. Last year a three-judge panel of the same court said that although UPS must exclude deaf people from driving vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds, in accordance with U.S. Transportation Department regulations, the firm failed to reasonably accommodate those who wanted to operate smaller “package cars.”