White House and Google Unveil Virtual Tour with Audio Captions and Spanish Translation

WASHINGTON (AP) — If you can’t make it to Washington, D.C. to tour the White House in person, don’t worry. The White House, in partnership with Google Maps and Google Arts & Culture, has launched a new virtual tour of the iconic mansion. This virtual tour, released on National Civics Day, allows users to explore all the rooms they would have seen on a public tour of the building using their computer or smartphone.

The initiative behind the virtual tour is to make the White House accessible to as many people as possible. First lady Jill Biden, who has a background in education, hopes that teachers will utilize this tour to educate students about the White House and its history. The virtual tour is the first of its kind to include audio captions narrated by White House social secretary Carlos Elizondo, offering viewers historical information about each room. Additionally, it is Google’s inaugural virtual tour of the White House to include Spanish translation.

The tour begins with a video message from President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, welcoming visitors, similar to the message played at the White House Visitors Center. The imagery for the tour was captured using Google Street View technology, starting from the East Wing Entrance and progressing through different rooms on the public tour route, such as the library, the China Room, the Green, Blue, and Red rooms, the East Room, and the State Dining Room. The tour was created using Google Arts & Culture’s storytelling tool.

Ben Gomes, senior vice president of learning and sustainability at Google, expressed that the mission of their arts and culture division is to make the world’s culture accessible to people everywhere. The virtual tour can be accessed on the White House website, as well as on Google Maps and the Google Arts & Culture page.