For Immediate Release
Office of Media Affairs
August 31, 2001

President and Mrs. Bush Unveil New White House Web Site

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Read the transcript of the web site event.

WASHINGTON,DC-President George W. Bush and Laura Bush today unveiled the new White House web site (http://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 (http://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.

URL: http://www.whitehouse.gov

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