The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America today launched a great new data visualization tool — The Wait We Carry — that lets you dig into individual detail on some of the thousands of veterans who have been waiting months and months for approval of their disability claims.
Nationwide, 250,000 veterans have been waiting a year or more for approval as the Veterans Benefits Administration has buckled under an enormous backlog that it doesn’t expect to improve much until 2015.
“This tool allows veterans to submit data on backlogged claims so public officials, advocates, journalists, other veterans and members of the public can see how the backlog personally affects new veterans,” the group said in a release today. “’The Wait We Carry’ is an incredibly important resource that puts the focus of the VA Backlog where it belongs: on the individual veterans facing an enduring and straining wait. These people are more than just numbers.”
The project was funded with a $250,000 grant from the Kinight Foundation.
Details on one veteran:
Here’s an overview shot of the interface:
