VA chatbot

What to expect when using our chatbot

Our chatbot is a resource to help you quickly find information about VA benefits and services. You won’t communicate with an actual representative through the chatbot. If you need help with any of the issues listed here, you’ll need to speak with a health care professional or one of our representatives. You can also visit our resources and support section for more information.

Our chatbot can’t do any of these things:

• Determine if you have a medical or mental health condition
• Provide medical or mental health advice, treatment, or counseling
• Answer questions or take reports about your prescriptions or side effects
• Help you with a personal, medical, or mental health emergency
• Transfer you directly to one of our call center representatives
• Help you sign in to VA.gov

 Call us at one of our helpful VA phone numbers to speak to a representative
 Learn how to sign in to VA.gov

How to use our chatbot with a screen reader

If you’re blind or have low vision, follow these steps to use our chatbot on a desktop computer with a screen reader:

1. Press Tab until the "Start chat" button is in focus and press Enter.
2. Use the arrow keys to listen to the chatbot messages.
3. Press Tab to select the "Type your message" section.
4. Ask your question and press Enter.
5. Press Shift+Tab to go back to messages.
6. Use the arrow keys to focus on a specific message.
7. Press Enter to focus on a link.
8. Press Enter to open a link. The link will open on another page.
9. Press Escape to leave the current message.
10. Press Shift+Tab to exit the chatbot window.

Note: We’re currently in beta testing. Thank you for your patience as we work to make our chatbot easier to use.

What information we collect when you use the chatbot

We use certain information you’ve provided to build better tools for Veterans, service members, and their families.

We keep only this information when you use our chatbot:

• A record of what you typed
• Your answers to our survey questions
• How long you used our chatbot, the links you clicked on, and other data

We protect your privacy in these ways:

• We don’t collect any information that can be used to identify you.
• We don’t use your information to contact you.
• We combine your information with others as a summary to study for ideas to improve our chatbot tool.
• We don’t share any of the information we collect outside of VA.

Note: You can help us protect your privacy and security by not typing any personal information into our chatbot. This includes your name, address, or anything else that someone could use to identify you.

Learn more about how we collect, store, and use your information