WASHINGTON – On Veterans Day, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) rolled out the first phase of a large-scale Web renovation to better serve America’s Veterans.  This first and most visible step of the renovation consists of changing the Web site’s look, making it easier for Veterans and their families to navigate and to find the information they are looking for.  

“VA is looking at all possible ways to increase our outreach efforts so that we can reach all our Veterans and their family members,” said VA Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs L. Tammy Duckworth. “That includes leveraging new technologies and creating user friendly Web sites.  VA’s care and services are only as good as Veterans’ awareness of them.  This new renovation will help organize our Web site and ultimately better serve our Veterans.” 

VA’s long-term goals in redesigning the site are to make it easier and more inviting for Veterans through incorporating Web best practices, focusing on topics and tasks rather than office function, improving the navigational structure to ensure consistency, and making it more visually appealing.  The new website design will cover more than 500 VA Web sites and about 80,000 pages.  

Some of the major changes include improvements in the navigational structure that provide consistency among all sites and consolidate major topics; a slide show section that showcases current VA events or hot topics; and bottom columns that feature news items, highlights and a “Quick List” with links directly to important applications such as Veterans On Line Applications (VONAPP) and MyHealtheVet.

To view the new version of the Web site, visit www.va.gov

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Reporters and media outlets with questions or comments should contact the Office of Media Relations at vapublicaffairs@va.gov

Veterans with questions about their health care and benefits (including GI Bill). Questions, updates and documents can be submitted online.

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