This interdisciplinary, applied project addresses the current problems of COVID-19 government communication and the flow of information to hard-to-reach groups, such as foreign-language speakers, vulnerable groups with low socio-economic status/low literacy and people with sensory impairments. The project aims to develop a guideline strategy for more inclusive COVID-19 crisis communication that takes the multilingual and socio-cultural diversity and degree of literacy of the Belgian population more into account. In this way, the project aims to combat information inequality and address the current problems with reaching foreign language speakers and vulnerable target audiences of governmental COVID-19 communication. The set of guidelines will consider both the form of government communication about COVID-19 and the channels via which information is best distributed. In addition to the development of the guidelines, the project will also develop communication products tailored to the specific needs of the target groups in Belgium.
The project consists of five work packages (WPs), which are interlinked both thematically and temporally:
- WP1 – Scientific evidence: rapid systematic literature review (KULeuven)
- WP2 – Practice-based evidence (UAntwerpen and UCLouvain)
- WP3 – User-based evidence (UAntwerpen, Atlas, NCCN, Thomas More, UCLouvain)
- WP4 – Guideline Development (KULeuven, UAntwerpen)
- WP5 – Dissemination
