The White House is proud to announce the launching of its new and revamped
website. The Bush Administration has worked to make the site accessible to
people with disabilities, and the site has been user-tested by web experts
with
disabilties to improve accessible features.

Whitehouse.gov provides a skip to content link that allows users to bypass
repetitive header information. This feature has been built to technology
standards and relies on outside screen readers to work consistently.
Sometimes,
screen readers inconsistently present skip to links and as screen reader
technologies improve, so will this feature. The White House is taking steps
to
make screen reader manufacturers aware of this technical issue.

The text only section is kept up-to-date in real time with the graphics
version
. This section is geared for users who prefer text-only browsing, which
includes
some members of the disability community as well as users with text-only
browsers.

Accessibility Features

"Go to" Buttons


·    The site includes an invisible "go to content" button in the top of the
header that allows site visitors who are using screen readers to skip to the
content of the page and bypass repetitive information included in the
navigation. http://swoa-05.eop.gov/
·    In addition to the "go to content" the site provides a "go to text
only"
and a "go to search" button in the header, which again allows users to
bypass
repetitive information and go directly to the search or text only areas of
the
site.

Alt tags
·    The graphics and photos on the site include alt tags. When screen
readers
encounter a graphic image, it reads the alt tag to the user, which provides
a
richer experience and allows the user to better understand the photograph or
picture. http://swoa-05.eop.gov/president/gallery/photoessay/index.html

Forms
·    Whitehouse.gov makes use of web forms, and these have been tested for
accessibility. For example, the Appointments application includes several
drop-down menus, which are often difficult to code for accessibility. These
were
built according to W3C standards and then fine-tuned based on user tests.
https://sawho04.eop.gov/cgi-bin/appointments

Tables
·    To make tables more accessible, header fields clearly label the
columns.
http://swoa-05.eop.gov/news/nominations/

Closed-Captioning
·    In addition to text transcripts of speeches, the site's on-demand video
takes advantage of web captioning technology that provides closed captioning
of
videos. http://swoa-05.eop.gov/news/releases/2001/08/20010814-4.html

Text-Only
·    The site's text only section is updated at the same time as the rest of
the
site. This serves not only the disability community but also users who
prefer
text-only surfing. http://swoa-05.eop.gov/president/text/gwbbio.html



Please visit The White House online at www.whitehouse.gov.  Use the Search
Engine in the upper right hand corner of the webpage to access the The
President's New Freedom Initiative for people with disabilities.  Just enter
"New Freedom" in the box, and you will be linked directly to the full text
version of The President's agenda.

Enjoy!

Gian-Carlo Peressutti
Associate Director
White House Office of Public Liaison