The City of Calgary undertook a scoping project and public engagement around the vision for Chinatown to better understand issues, opportunities and outcomes that are important to the community.

We like this engagement for a few reasons, aesthetically, practice-wise,and for the positive impact it had.

Firstly and most importantly, the City engaged in a very genuine way and went the extra mile by translating the information into Chinese. This demonstrates a commitment to engaging with the community most affected by potential changes and understanding the priorities of this community. Governments often have a desire to engage with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities but may not invest the resources into engaging people in the language they speak at home. However, for some communities who do not traditionally engage with government, this is an absolutely crucial step.

The second thing we like about this engagement is the way the City has made good use of tabs to present the dual language information. Tabs are so easy to abuse: they condense information conveniently and look good on desktop but can be a nightmare to navigate on mobile. By presenting each section as a neat little block with just two tabs – one for English, one for Chinese – the City has created an attractive and very digestible layout for their page, also resisting the urge to cram everything between one set of dual tabs.

This project is a good example of how an engagement can be set up that is accessible to CALD communities and maintains information in dual languages without sacrificing aesthetics and user experience. Council demonstrated a strong understanding of the principles of diversity and inclusion aligned to culture, then maximised their reach with digital usability and accessibility elements, ensuring citizens had every opportunity to engage with the content.

7000 ideas were collected and it was clear that stakeholders want to preserve the unique culture, language and heritage of Chinatown.

This is more than a dual language campaign - it is about creating thoughtful digital engagement that allows a sizable segment of the community to feel that their voices are important and that their views are valued by their city.

Visit the Planning Chinatown project