Projects

Bridging Language Gaps in Digital Health Access 

Clin Lai, Romi Román, Sarah Tran

This project investigates how digital technologies influence access to credible health information among multilingual, non-native English speakers—specifically Spanish and Mandarin-speaking communities in the Northeast U.S. Prior research shows these groups are more vulnerable to health misinformation (Anaya et al., 2021; Jin et al., 2024; Shin et al., 2023), in part due to language and literacy barriers in systems designed primarily for native English speakers. Combining methods from sociolinguistics, media studies, and human-computer interaction, we aim to identify actionable strategies to reduce inequities in digital information access. We use the MAIN Model (Sundar, 2008) and the Internet Skills framework (van Dijk & van Deursen, 2014), to examine how social, linguistic and comprehension barriers intersect with digital skills, shaping users’ ability to find and assess quality information.