Congresswoman Elaine Luria, D-Va., is urging House leaders to bring the Department of Veterans Affairs Website Accessibility Act to the floor for a vote in order to ensure disabled veterans have access to the benefits they have earned.
The Department of Veterans Affairs Website Accessibility Act (S. 746) is the Senate companion bill to Congresswoman’s Luria’s VA Website Accessibility Act of 2019 (H.R. 1199), which passed the House in October 2019.
This bipartisan and bicameral effort is critical to eliminating barriers faced by disabled veterans seeking quality medical care as well as disability, vocational, and educational benefits.
“Over 9 million veterans receive services from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and during this pandemic it is unacceptable that some are unable to access critical information due to accessibility issues,” Luria said. “Oftentimes, blind veterans are unable to have the same quality of care because the VA heavily relies on websites and kiosks to disseminate information. If passed, this bill will pave the path to expanding access to benefits to more than 211,000 veterans.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs Website Accessibility Act would require the VA to study whether its websites comply with section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 USC 794d).
Upon completion of the study, the VA will submit a report to Congress identifying barriers to accessing each website, file, or web-based application and determine a plan to make each of them more accessible.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, this legislation has become more urgent than ever to disabled veterans seeking care and resources from the VA.
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