Migration Council Australia has worked with Protein One—a Sydney-based award-winning digital design agency to develop a multilingual mobile app for Australia’s culturally and linguistically diverse communities about COVID-19, its impact and available support.
“Accurate, relevant and timely information during the COVID-19 pandemic is critical for all in the Australian community, and communication strategies tailored for culturally and linguistically diverse communities in particular are essential to bridge the health literacy and English language proficiency gaps,” said Carla Wilshire OAM, CEO of Migration Council Australia.
With over 1 million people who speak little or no English and over 5 million who speak a language other than English at home, Australia’s diversity presents challenges in communicating public health information.
Further barriers include lower levels of health literacy and awareness of the Australian health care system among the multicultural communities.
“In developing the app, we hope to provide authoritative information in an engaging format to Australia’s multicultural communities on self-care, social regulations and support services during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Ms Wilshire.
The MyAusCOVID-19 app allows users to:
- Browse articles to find out more about COVID-19 and support in Australia
- Search for topics or points of interest
- View short animations with helpful summaries of specific topics
- Find useful tips and contacts to help adjusting during COVID-19.
The app will be available in English, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Korean, Khmer, Punjabi, Japanese, Italian, Greek, French, Spanish, Thai, Indonesian, Tagalog, Russian, Turkish, Tamil, Somali, Arabic, Burmese, Karen, Dari, Persian, and Urdu.
The app is distributed for free and is available to download from Apple Store and Google Play. Information about the app is also available from www.myauscovid-19.org.au.
“As management of COVID-19 progresses, the scope of the app will be broadened to serve as a digital health, wellbeing and system literacy resource for Australia’s culturally and linguistically diverse communities,” Ms Wilshire concluded.
Story source: Migration Council Australia
