Not able to visit Washington? Unable to secure a pass for a White House tour? Do not fret.
On Friday, National Civics Day, The White House, Google Maps, and Google Arts & Culture unveiled a brand-new virtual tour of the renowned home.
Users will be able to view every room that they would have visited on a public tour of the building using a computer or smartphone.
First lady Jill Biden is striving to make the White House as accessible as possible, and this includes the revamped virtual tour. According to Elizabeth Alexander, her spokesperson, Biden, a longstanding professor at a community college, hopes that educators will utilize it to teach pupils about the White House and its history.
She’s bringing the White House to them because not everyone can travel to Washington, D.C. to tour it, according to Alexander.This virtual tour of the White House by Google is the first to have audio captions for those with disabilities. Carlos Elizondo, the White House social secretary, narrates the captions, which appear on the screen and provide visitors with background information on each of the rooms.
Spanish translation is also available for the first time on a Google virtual tour of the White House.
A short video of President Joe Biden and the first lady greeting guests opens the tour; this is the same greeting that plays for those who visit in person at the White House Visitors Center.
The images were taken using Google Street View, which began at the East Wing Entrance and proceeded through every room on the public tour route, including the State Dining Room, the East Room, the China Room, the Green, Blue, and Red rooms, and the library.
The storytelling tool from Google Arts & Culture was used to construct the tour.
The goal of Google’s arts and culture division, according to senior vice president of learning and sustainability Ben Gomes, is to make culture accessible to all people.
The tour can be found on the Google Arts & Culture page, Google Maps, and the White House website.