Content, Accessibility, and Information Architecture support
Last Updated: May 8, 2025
About the Content and Information Architecture and Accessibility Digital Experience (ADE) teams
The Content and Information Architecture and Accessibility Digital Experience (ADE) teams work with many product teams and partners across VA. They also respond to urgent work such as public health emergencies like COVID-19, new laws, Congressional mandates, and Executive Orders. Both teams aim to improve the customer experience of Veterans and their family members and help VA deliver digital services more equitably and effectively, especially for those who have been historically underserved.
The Content and Information and ADE teams are integral parts of the Collaboration Cycle and may partner with your team by providing guidance and support in the areas outlined below.
Our goals
To ensure your product design meets these standards:
Content should be in alignment with the VA.gov Style Guide. Content should be accurate, consistent, accessible, equitable, and easily found, understood, and used by Veterans and beneficiaries.
Optimal user flows that are findable, properly placed within VA’s IA, and align with VA.gov navigation standards.
A fully accessible product experience for all, including Veterans using assistive devices, that aligns with VA accessibility requirements.
Content and Information Architecture team
The Content and Information Architecture team provides support to product teams as much as our capacity allows. The level of support we can provide varies depending on our current workload and OCTO priorities.
Content for your product
Content collaboration on the tool or form itself may include:
High-level content design and strategy
Content creation or edits to existing content for plain language and style guide standards
Content on the rest of http://VA.gov
The content team manages all unauthenticated http://VA.gov webpages in the benefit hubs and the resources and support section. Product-related work in this category may include:
Updating to static pages related to the product or creating new static pages to serve as entry points to products
Working with the product team on react widgets for incremental releases
Advocating for plain language and style guide standards with SMEs
Content migration from legacy products and websites
Incorporating research findings into content design for pages and products
Information Architecture
Our information architects can help you create wayfinding mechanisms within your product and situate your product within the larger information architecture of http://VA.gov .
User journeys, entry points, and important relationships: What triggers a veteran or user's need for this product, and how will they know it exists and find it? What areas on the site will link to this product? What other products or pages should crosslink to this product?
Page placement: Where will the page live in our http://VA.gov sitemap and why?
Connections within http://VA.gov : Implementation of entry points, crosslinking, and search best bets (once the product is in production)
URLs and breadcrumbs: What should the URL be and why?
Redirects: Is this product replacing a page that we need to redirect? If we are redirecting content or tools from legacy pages (e.g. eBenefits, the “old” VA websites), a lot of stakeholder coordination is needed. Connect with those stakeholders early!
Best Bets: If you go to http://VA.gov Search and type in 'pension,' you’ll see 2 results under “our top recommendations.” We can help set up which URLs appear under top recommendations for different keywords, making your page more findable in search results.
Accessibility Digital Experience (ADE) team
The ADE team's goal is to empower teams to deliver the most accessible products possible for Veterans. We do this by providing teams with insights, training, and support as accessibility subject matter experts.
User research planning
Tech support for research sessions, including pilot sessions
Accessible design and content
Accessible PDFs
Accessibility testing
Accessibility audits at all stages of the product lifecycle
FAQs
What is the difference between Governance and the Content and Information Architecture and ADE teams?
The Governance Team owns the Collaboration Cycle, ensuring that teams meet http://VA.gov 's Experience Standards and QA Standards. They check the VFS team's product adherence to these Experience and QA Standards during 3 separate touchpoint meetings: the Design Intent, the Midpoint review, and the Staging review. During these checkpoints, Platform Governance ensures that VFS teams are on course and following http://VA.gov Experience and QA Standards in specific practice areas: Design, Information Architecture (IA), Content, Accessibility, and Quality Assurance (QA). After reviewing a product or feature, the Governance Team makes recommendations that align with those standards.
The Content and Information Architecture and ADE teams partner with the VFS team throughout the product lifecycle process to provide them with the information, guidance, and resources needed to build exceptional Veteran-facing products. There are no strict touchpoints. The teams will collaborate through a mix of working formats, such as office hours, regular product- or topic-specific meetings, and asynchronous collaboration, depending on project needs and team capacity.
When to start working with the Content and Information Architecture and ADE teams
Reach out early in your development process to increase the likelihood that the teams can support your work and establish a collaboration timeline. The teams work on nearly every OCTO product and manage all unauthenticated content on http://VA.gov . We prioritize intake requests based on capacity and VA and OCTO priorities.
Before research
Before you take your product through usability research, collaborate with the teams for:
Content and IA strategy, based on complexity and size of effort
IA design, including user flows, site placement, navigation components, primary entry points, and any crosslinking needs
Accessibility reviews of mockups and prototypes
Editing for plain language and http://VA.gov content standards, as team capacity allows
Guidance in advocating for plain language with SMEs, as needed
Planning/doing research
Before and during usability research, collaborate with the teams for:
Guidance on content- or IA-focused research
Support for assistive technology users during research sessions
After research
After usability research, you'll share your research findings with the teams, who will work with you on related recommendations and provide the following:
Content and IA strategy guidance (as needed)
Finalized IA design, including URLs
Contact the Content and Information Architecture team
Reach out to the Content and Information Architecture team through their #content-ia-centralized-team Slack channel.
To start formally working with Content and Information Architecture, submit a Content and IA intake form ticket in GitHub.
Contact the ADE team
Reach out to the ADE team through the #accessibility-help Slack channel using the @accessibility-de handle.
To start formally working with ADE, submit an Accessibility Digital Experience (ADE) Intake Form ticket in GitHub.
Help and feedback
Get help from the Platform Support Team in Slack.
Submit a feature idea to the Platform.