EEOC REVAMPS INTERNET WEB SITE

***  New Home Page More User-Friendly ***

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today that it has redesigned its home page on the World Wide Web to make information more accessible to the public in a user-friendly format.  The action is part of EEOC's continuing effort to enhance outreach and education in order to better meet the needs of those it serves.

"Bringing informative and educational information to employers, the legal community, and the public at large is a high priority for the Commission, and these latest improvements to our web site reflect this ongoing commitment," said EEOC Chairwoman Ida L. Castro.  "Technologically, we've come from a long way back in the pack to where we now have a dynamic web site that engages everybody with a stake in EEOC's work."        

Since its humble beginnings in February 1997, EEOC's web site (http://www.eeoc.gov/) is now recognized as a highly valuable information resource. The site has been praised for providing direct information about equal employment opportunity in an easy-to-understand format. So far in 1999, the web site has received an average of approximately 100,000 visitors per month.

News publications specializing in technology, business, and legal issues have pointed out that EEOC has been among the leading federal agencies in designing an innovative web site.  In addition to being selected as one of the nation's top 100 Internet sites for new companies by Entrepreneur magazine in its July issue (one of only a few federal government sites selected), EEOC's web site has been featured in PC Magazine and National Law Journal.

The changes announced today will provide quicker and easier access to agency information with restructured sections for private sector employers and employees, and an expanded section on the federal sector complaint process.  The web site also contains comprehensive information on small business compliance, the agency's national mediation and technical assistance programs, as well as private sector charge filing procedures.  In addition, the site includes rules and regulations, fact sheets, brochures, guidance documents, enforcement and litigation statistics, and press releases.