On August 21, 2026, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) published final rules modifying the regulations applicable to government contractors’ affirmative action programs, including the regulations implementing Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. The changes follow President Trump’s Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity, and generally take effect on September 21, 2026.[1]
The final rule makes several significant changes to federal contractors’ obligations concerning individuals with disabilities, as described further below.
- Disability Self-Identification Requirement Eliminated
- The final rule eliminates the requirement that federal contractors invite applicants and employees to voluntarily self-identify as individuals with disabilities. As a result, OFCCP is also discontinuing Form CC-305, Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability, which contractors previously were required to use when soliciting disability information.[2]
- In finalizing the rule, OFCCP took the position that the requirement was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act’s (“ADA’s”) admonition that covered employers “shall not … make inquiries of a job applicant as to whether such applicant is an individual with a disability.”
- With the elimination of the requirement to solicit this information, employers’ inquiries of applicants will generally be governed by the ADA’s restrictions on disability-related inquiries.
- Data Collection and 7% Disability Utilization Goal Rescinded
- Relatedly, OFCCP rescinded the Section 503 regulations’ data-collection requirements and the 7% utilization goal.[3]
- It took the position that seeking information about applicants’ disabilities for data collection was in violation of the ADA and that a contractor could only measure progress or achievement of the 7% utilization goal if it knew of or identified employees’ disabilities through the inquiry. Thus, the final rule also eliminates both of those items.
- Nondiscrimination and Accommodation Requirements Remain
- The final rule does not eliminate the ADA’s core protections for individuals with disabilities. Covered federal contractors remain prohibited from discriminating against qualified applicants and employees because of disability and must continue to provide reasonable accommodations for known physical or mental limitations, absent an undue hardship or a direct threat.
- Additionally, these changes do not eliminate obligations under applicable state and local disability-discrimination laws, Title VII, or other federal, state, and local statutes prohibiting employment discrimination.
- Contractors also continue to have other affirmative-action obligations under the regulations implementing Section 503. For instance, OFCCP noted that employers must still “design and implement an audit and reporting system.”
- Section 503 Threshold Updated to $20,000
- The regulations also reflect the $20,000 federal contract threshold for Section 503 coverage established by the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council. The FAR Council had increased the contract threshold from $15,000 to $20,000, effective October 1, 2025.
What Federal Contractors Should Do Now
- Covered Federal contractors should review their applicant and employee self-identification processes and discontinue use of Form CC-305.
- Covered contractors should also review applicant-tracking systems, onboarding materials, HRIS processes, affirmative-action procedures, and any automated workflows that currently solicit disability information to ensure that their policies and procedures do not conflict with OFCCP’s stated interpretation of the ADA.
- Although this does not differ from prior practice, covered contractors should also ensure that any disability-related inquiry of a current employee complies with the ADA, including its requirement that such inquiries generally be job-related and consistent with business necessity.
- OFCCP recognized that covered contractors can “continue to assess their workplace policies through other such means such as barrier analyses of recruitment, hiring, retention, and promotion practices.”
[1] The same day that OFCCP issued the modification to the Section 503 regulations, it also rescinded the regulations implementing Executive Order 11246 and made some modifications to the regulations implementing VEVRAA (the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act). Those changes are unlikely to impact employers who have already reviewed their programs and policies since Executive Order 11246 was revoked.
[2] Notably, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs approved the current version of CC-305 earlier this year, and the approved form does not expire until 2029.
[3] In 2013 OFCCP established a 7% utilization goal. Pursuant to the regulations implementing that goal, covered contractors were required to annually assess their utilization of individuals with disabilities in each job group (or, in some instances, the entire workforce) and to take specific steps to ascertain the existence of, and correct, any impediments to equal employment opportunity for people with disabilities.
