Are you a user of the VA Veteran-facing website? You can make your voice heard about ways to improve it. It’s easy to do and doesn’t take a huge time commitment. VA will even compensate you for your time to help us improve VA’s website content, products, tools and services. Veterans, Veteran caregivers and family dependents are all eligible.

We welcome those from every age group and demographic. In fact, VA has recruitment criteria for the Department’s Human Centered Design research activities to ensure they are inclusive and represent as much of the Veteran community as possible.

In addition to making VA’s Veteran website more user-friendly and complete, your feedback will help us enhance accessibility, which supports Veterans with cognitive or functional disabilities to ensure they have good experiences with the website.

Sign up at the Veteran Usability site.

Why your help is important 

In January 2022 alone, 1.5 million people—the largest number of individuals ever—used VA.gov to access VA health care, benefits, and other useful information.

This number has been steadily growing since VA.gov launched a new, modernized user experience in 2018. Therefore, continually enhancing the website to make it the best possible experience is affecting millions and millions of Veterans every year.

VA uses the Human Centered Design approach, given that one of the best ways to understand user needs is talking to Veterans and those who support you. The needs of people—not government constraints—is the overriding factor that guides the technical and design decisions of VA products, tools and services.

VA’s Office of Information and Technology’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer runs these research activities. Veteran participation over the years has translated into results for users, including:

  • Since 2019, nearly 4,000 Veterans, family members and caregivers have engaged in over 550 studies.
  • In 2022, close to 1,000 Veterans, families and caregivers participated in 65 studies already, including 130 assistive technology users.
  • These insights helped VA develop and enhance roughly 70 products, tools and services that are part of VA.gov.

Sign up to make a difference!

The Office of Information and Technology is committed to incorporating your feedback into our design process to be sure we’re making changes Veterans need and want most—so you and millions of other Veterans can find and accomplish what you need quickly and easily.

Sign up on the Veteran Usability site.

Leave a comment

The comments section is for opinions and feedback on this particular article; this is not a customer support channel. If you are looking for assistance, please visit Ask VA or call 1-800-698-2411. Please, never put personally identifiable information (SSAN, address, phone number, etc.) or protected health information into the form — it will be deleted for your protection.

14 Comments

  1. MICHAEL NORRIS November 23, 2022 at 08:49

    Why is it that since I received my 100% disability rating, it seems the VA no longer wants anything to do with me? When I call my clinic, the phone rings 20/30 times, no one has answered either number I have in at least 6 month’s, and that’s pretty much any clinic I call? ? If I ask a question, my Dr. say’s “the VA no longer does that” or the clinic (if accessible) say’s “we don’t have that” ! Not “we can no longer order/get that”, just we don’t have that”!

  2. Bill Pierce November 21, 2022 at 11:27

    What happened a couple weeks ago? I used to be able to log on using DS logon (CAC), and it was no problem. Now, I am sent to a page where it lets me know that I am registered as a user on VA website, but I have to go through hoops to look up my information now. Am I missing something? It’s like a switch was turned and logging in changed 180 degrees.

  3. Kathleen Gonzales November 20, 2022 at 14:57

    Could we get updated trifold, printable brochures in the Outreach & Materials section? Something units can print for SM to take regarding benefits. Bonus points for ones addressing Reserve Component anything but I couldn’t find any trifold brochures on Post 9/11 GI Bill. The ones at my reserve unit are from 2012 and I can’t find anything more recent.

  4. Dennis Fernandez November 18, 2022 at 16:21

    Travel Reimbursement is a nightmare now. It went from a 3-5 step process at the kiosk at the medical facility to a 17 step process via online. I’ll just go back to paper submission even if I have to mail it in myself. I’m sure others will do the same and flood the offices with Travel Reimbursement paperwork. Bring back the kiosks to be able to submit these Travel Reimbursements and have the option of online with a more simplified process instead of the 17-step process at the website.

  5. Sheryl Langdon November 18, 2022 at 12:16

    Maybe it’s more about keeping the humanity in serving others rather than weaponizing technology to destroy those you serve and who has served you?

  6. Robert Alan Keene November 18, 2022 at 08:51

    Text messages should state whether labs are included with appointment and whether the labs are fasting or not.

  7. John R Overman November 17, 2022 at 17:19

    I just they would put the chairs back in the main lobby. so when you waiting on somebody you have a place to set. I needed a chair to set on because of my low back and i’m not only one. There are other vets that they were back out there too.
    Thank You
    John R. Overman

  8. Carl Roberts November 17, 2022 at 11:19

    How about adding my active med list to MHV mobile app, With the increase in using Community Care it would help vets to have a list available when checking in to a private Dr. I was asked 3 times earlier this week about my meds. Do you really actually think I will recall all those unpronounceable names by memory? Get a grip.
    It should be an easy addition to the Vaccine link with a separate link to ACTIVE MEDS. As a sarcastic final comment: how often do you think a Dr office asks for a vaccine list?

  9. Ted Rodosovich November 16, 2022 at 22:41

    Use licensed certified social workers’ advice, comments, etc in place of religion fairy tales.

  10. Norman Gerald Stewart November 16, 2022 at 10:22

    I as thousands others, didn’t have computer in school, and I personally
    don’t know how to use it much.
    I am trying to learn how, but it’s slow.
    People who unlike me, who had this training can’t see just how hard it can be
    To go on my healthy vet for instance
    And not get lost in the shuffle, I do
    Are there anything to help us in that issue.

  11. Kathleen Gonzales November 15, 2022 at 14:54

    For a reservist, finding what benefits I am eligible for is incredibly frustrating. I am having to dig around USC’s to find information regarding MGIB-SR, qualifying active duty time, and whether or not I am entitled to VA Health Care. There is no real information regarding how disability benefits work for reservists. I took the education MLC and there was maybe one sentence about MGIB-SR. Is a reservist with less than 90 active duty other than training days qualify for VA Health Care if they have a service connected disability? The website doesn’t address this. Can reservists access IPVAP? What about Veteran Owned Small Business resources? Or PCPG? These are things reservists want to know that aren’t spelled out on the website or are vague. There is no clear answer regarding Tuition Assistance used with MGIB-SR – I had to go digging in the School Certifying Official Handbook for the answer. Imagine how confusing this would be for the average soldier who doesn’t know keywords.
    I would love to help VA develop the website to meet the needs of Reservists – because right now reservists rely on barrack lawyers on Facebook and to get their answers. The Participant Guide for Reservists on the website and at TAP are EXACTLY the same as for Active Duty which is completely pointless and a little insulting. Even the “Summary of Reserve Component Benefits” available online hasn’t been updated since 2012.

  12. Bruce Elichman November 14, 2022 at 16:34

    MUCH too complicated to log in !! If Banks, Lenders etc make it easy, so can you.
    The information you supply is valuable,
    With the exception of “the log in” the information is great .
    Thank you for asking for our Comments,

    • Carl Roberts November 17, 2022 at 11:22

      If you can add the fingerprint login, it helps a lot. Good luck finding how to add.

  13. John C Gerdy November 14, 2022 at 09:35

    Why do Supplemental claims take nearly as long as a new claim? I would think that about 80% of the pertinent initial claim documentation would have already been reviewed. Hopefully, the Supplemental claim should go to the same initial claim reviewer (RO), or RO team, and the Supplemental would be a small addendum to the initial claim and should be completed around 60 day timeframe.

Comments are closed.

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