Umemoto Is Recognized for Multilingual COVID-19 Information
The Little Tokyo-based newspaper Rafu Shimpo cited Urban Planning Professor Karen Umemoto‘s leadership in making COVID-19 information available in different languages. Umemoto is director of UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center, which launched the COVID-19 Multilingual Resource Hub to make critical information about COVID-19 accessible to immigrant and non-English speaking populations in 40 languages. The website offers basic information about wearing a mask, washing hands and maintaining physical distance with others, as well as guides to protesting during the pandemic and links to resources for reporting hate incidents targeting the Asian community. “The Asian American Studies Center has a legacy of serving the community,” Umemoto said. “When we were told in March that UCLA was shutting down in light of stay-at-home orders, we made a pivot to mobilize the center’s talents and resources to work with fellow faculty in Public Health to create this service to the public.”
