As dreary as the unemployment rate may look for the average American, it's about one and a half times as high for those with disabilities. As a candidate in 2008, Barack Obama said he would push for regulations that would give workers with disabilities a fairer shot at employment with the federal government.

Since we last updated this promise, President Obama issued an executive order requiring each federal agency to draft its own plan for hiring and retaining more workers with disabilities, with performance targets and numerical goals. That action dealt with direct federal employment, rather than contractors who employ workers with disabilities.

The Labor Department is also revising existing rules related to workers with disabilities who are employed by federal contractors and subcontractors. Such workers already receive equal employment opportunity protections under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. Obama said it wasn't working, because it lacked accountability measures, such as timetables and goals.

The department has proposed a performance benchmark where federal contractors and subcontractors must try to have 7 percent of their workforce be employees with disabilities. The 7-percent figure represents the percentage of civilian workers in the labor force with disabilities and the percentage not in the labor force with disabilities who might want a job.

The revisions also include "measurable objectives, quantitative analyses, and internal auditing and reporting systems." The department is reviewing public feedback on a draft of the proposal.

Though the new rules for federal contractors and subcontractors aren't published yet, it appears to be a matter of when, not if the promised changes will take place. We rate this a Promise Kept for now, but we will monitor for any hiccups that steer this process off course.