Perhaps like many of our blind and low vision veterans, I found it difficult and frustrating to use the much-heralded MyHealtheVet. However, there is a group of folks that works either for or at VA who have taken on the challenge of making accessibility a whole lot better. We met some of them at the recent convention in St. Louis while others have been involved in Beta Testing with the goal of developing a usable, friendly, app that is accessible.
Whatever their connection to the development of this app, some well-deserved praise is coming their way. They set new goals for accessibility and made it happen, thus alleviating frustrations of all kinds for the present and very likely for the future too.
Although the goal was to develop an app that could be used by a Smartphone, still the wave of the future, the big plan was for all the information to be available after only four clicks. With that in mind, the next step was to move what was or is available from MyHealtheVet to an app for either a phone or a tablet. I am not certain how well this works in the Android world but, for iPhones and iPads, the results have been phenomenal. Taking nothing away from the accomplishment, there is one annoyance that is being worked on and will hopefully be resolved soon.
To better understand where I am coming from, go to the Apple mobile application store and download the “VA Health and Benefits” app. To make double sure it is the right one, there will be a logo of a blue square with “VA” in it. The next step is the setup, which is the problem VA is currently attempting to remove. This problem involves the requirement to use a credentialing service— MyHealtheVet, ID.me, DS Login, or Login.gov to verify our status as veterans. Then, of course, comes the two-factor authentication. It’s a pain in the neck but we can do it once and not have to go through everything again.
Once logged in, we can detect four tabs on the bottom of the screen: Home, Benefits, Health, and Payments. Stay tuned for a more in-depth article in the upcoming issue of The Bulletin in which I explain the functions and capabilities of each of the four tabs. Additionally, VA has provided some excellent online assets that complement my Bulletin article and explain how to use some of the app’s cool features that I’ve discovered. To locate those resources, click here.
If you conduct a road test of the new VA Health and Benefits app, you may well find that the frustrations we experienced with MyHealtheVet have been lowered considerably. The accessibility of the available options makes our lives much easier. Hopefully, the change for you will be as dramatic as it has been for me, perhaps best described as frustration that is now jubilation!
