The United States Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed some new hiring rules that would require federal contractors and subcontractors to have seven percent of their workforces be people with disabilities.

Current regulations require non discrimination and recruiting efforts directed at people with disabilities, but this rule would add an official hiring goal.

DOL is collecting comments on the proposed seven percent hiring goal, and is also interested in comments on a possible “sub-goal” of hiring two percent of people with certain “particularly severe disabilities”. Currently, this list includes “total deafness, blindness, missing extremities (hand, foot, arm or leg), partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism”.

DOL is interested in comments on the concept of the sub-goal, which disabilities should be included in the sub-goal, and any data or research pointing at the need for a sub-goal for specific disabilities.

Comments are due February 7. If this issue is of interest to you, you can read the proposed regulations and comment online at Regulations.gov here: http://fifthfreedom.org/u/dq.