Question

“Department of energy rolling back Disabled civil rights laws in place since 1980!”

Answer 1

Yes, the U.S. Department of Energy is limiting disability rights. As shown in the article, in May of this year the DOE has removed accessibility requirements in section 504 of the Rehabilitation act. This means that federally funded construction projects will not enforce as many accessibility requirements. 

I have found another article that also talks about this each, which they said,

"DOE said the Section 504 rule, which was written by the then-Department of Health, Education and Welfare and incorporated by Congress into the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, is unnecessary because of other federal requirements, so it is fast-tracking the rule rescission. "

They agree with what the original article said, and proved that there laws had been in place since at least 1980. They also go on to say that this is part of a broader rollback of civil rights by the Trump Administration.

I couldn't find any sources through the official Department website, but I have found multiple articles that all claim that the DOE is making rollbacks on this section, including the one I quoted above. 

https://www.facilitiesdive.com/news/doe-to-drop-Section-504-building-accessibility-rule-DREDF/753325/

Answer 2

The claim made by Accessibilityofficer.com and several other outlets, either news or blogs, stems from a document published on the Federal Register detailing a rescinding of section 10 CFR Part 1040 of section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Doing so, while not removing the entirety of section 504, heavily undermines it allowing buildings to avoid installing proper accessibility infrastructure despite getting federal funding. At the time of the cited article the deadline for the final rule by the DOE was set for July 15th, 2025, but has since been delayed all the way up to December 9th, 2025, as described in this citation. The delay on the final rule was due to severe pushback by institutions like the ACLU, who delivered opposing comment. I found several smaller news sites (excluding the ACLU, obviously) discussing the issue, such as MotherJones, but there is otherwise very little coverage of what is a major rollback in civil rights.