WASHINGTON,DC-President George W. Bush and Laura Bush today unveiled the new White House web site (www.whitehouse.gov) at an event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building Library at the White House.
The site features a vibrant design, richer content, a Spanish
language section, multi-media components, improved access for disabled
users and an area designed specifically for children
(www.whitehousekids.gov).
Navigation is improved with front page access to key areas of the
site including a more powerful search engine, news, biographies,
policies and history of the White House.
The new site will be updated frequently throughout the day with
rapid posting of speeches, press conferences, press releases
and nominations. Audio and video from many Presidential events will
also be available.
On-demand video webcasts will be close-captioned to allow the
hearing-impaired to view the event. For those who are
sight-impaired, the site has been programmed so a voice synthesizer can
read aloud the contents, including online forms and photo captions.
The kids' site is designed for elementary school children and was
created with the assistance of teachers and schoolchildren. By
personifying the President's pets and ranch animals, children will
learn about the White House, the President and American
heroes. Trivia questions, photo albums and other features
will be updated regularly.
Recognizing that users access the Internet on a variety of
bandwidths, the site was designed to accommodate both slow and fast
connections. While rich in content, the pages can still be
downloaded quickly. A text-only option is included for the
most rapid download time.
The President and First Lady were joined by site designer Jane
Cook, former web master for the Texas Governor's office. The web site
was designed and programmed entirely by staff and included input from
many offices of the White House.
In designing the site, the web team met frequently with advisors
from the education, disabled, Hispanic and technology
communities. Numerous children provided feedback on the
kids' site.