NCD releases 2026 Progress Report

For Immediate Release

October 7, 2026

WASHINGTON –Today, the National Council on Disability (NCD) released its annual progress report, focusing on a review of governmentwide disability policy developments over the last year.

National Disability Policy: A Progress Report 2026 is a statutorily required status update on the nation’s advances and opportunities in federal disability policy. This year’s edition highlights major developments across key sectors including healthcare, transportation, education, employment, and technology, while laying out recommendations to address ongoing challenges to the rights of individuals with disabilities.

NCD also examines its related prior findings and makes current recommendations to the President, Congress, and federal agencies based on disability policy developments highlighted in this year’s progress report.

“In the last year, like every year before it, there have been concerning developments as well as sources of encouragement for Americans with disabilities,” said NCD Acting Chairman Neil Romano. “In this annual report to federal policymakers, we seek to highlight both and provide a pathway toward a better year yet to come for those with disabilities and their families.”

This report points to historic gains in employment and strategic shifts in federal health research but also cautions policymakers about the detrimental impact of regulatory delays, ongoing transportation barriers, and legal reinterpretations that threaten to erode protections that Congress intended when it enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Some developments since last year’s report include implementation of changes to Medicaid; delays in several accessibility regulations, including web accessibility regulations; a new interpretation of the landmark Olmstead v. L.C. Supreme Court decision by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ); and the reintroduction of bills that could weaken the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The report makes several recommendations about ways to ensure that the rights of people with disabilities remain protected and that the goals of the ADA—equal opportunity, economic self-sufficiency, independent living, and full participation of people with disabilities in all aspects of society—are furthered.

NCD as an independent federal agency provides recommendations to the President, Congress, federal agencies, state, local, territorial and tribal governments on disability policy.

The report is available for download at NCD.gov.

###