Politics
Chinatown Seniors Rely on a Digital Literacy Program. Its Future Is Uncertain Amid Federal Funding Cuts
by Cate Bouvet, Liana Liu Ioannides and Yaohong Zhong
In May, the Trump administration terminated the federal Digital Equity Capacity Grant, which had provided Illinois $23.7 million to give residents access to internet and digital education.
The Digital Equity Coalition distributed the grant to dozens of community groups in underserved and low-income communities across Chicago. In Chinatown, the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, or CBCAC, would have received $50,000 from the cut federal grant.
Chinatown senior Ping Dong attends CBCACs’ weekly digital education classes. There, CBCAC staff and volunteers help seniors learn how to use technology — from identifying online scams to using Google Maps to navigate public transportation.
“The elderly have many issues they don’t understand, including benefits and welfare, so we often have to call to inquire about that, especially when there is this organization, we learn a lot of things,” Dong said.
Using what she learned in class, Dong downloaded an app where she can access online bus timetables.
Muhua Gong, 66, and her husband use digital skills they learned in class when they shop in the supermarket, asking DeepSeek AI to help them decide what to buy and call friends on the messaging app WeChat, to ask if they need anything.
Li Qiulin, 100, lives in a primarily English-speaking nursery home while possessing only basic English language skills. She said her biggest motivation to attend the classes was to learn how to take photographs. “I like traveling and taking pictures,” she said. “But when traveling, what’s the point of taking pictures if you don’t know how to use the phone?”
Wenyan Wang, the director of the Digital Equity and Literacy program at CBCAC, said the classes help seniors develop independence and autonomy and overcome significant language barriers.
University of Chicago student Michelle Du volunteers at CBCAC, often spending time teaching seniors how to use Google Translate. She said the classes build intergenerational bonds in the wider Asian American community in Chicago.
“Once a grandma is just giving me snacks afterwards and all sorts of things,” Du said. “I don’t experience that in everyday life.”
Wang said seniors rely on CBCAC to help them with all of their technology issues, but the organization can no longer provide help immediately — leaving seniors to join a growing appointment waitlist.
CBCAC Director Grace Chen said that even with the federal grant, funding ran short.
“That’s not enough for the full program,” Chen said. “That’s not enough to support a staff salary and not even enough for a lot of printing and other resources.”
Henna Samurd Butt, a digital equity researcher at the University of Chicago, said making online access fair means confronting longstanding patterns of segregation and disparity in Chicago.
“We need to tackle it as a social issue,” Butt said.
State Rep. Theresa Mah (D-Chicago) represents a district that includes Chinatown and Armour Square. She emphasized the challenges of language barriers and literacy rates in the community.
“Very few people really know or have internalized this information about the fact that there are a lot of seniors in Chinatown, and they live below the poverty line,” Mah said.
CBCAC recently received a private $25,000 urgent response support grant from the Julian Grace Foundation to continue digital literacy programs. However, without federal support, it remains unclear whether CBCAC will be able to continue its digital skills programming.
“This idea that these are extraneous benefits that people don’t deserve to have, that they are not necessary, or that these aren’t communities that this administration is seeking to help and that mindset in general is one that I find objectionable and offensive,” Mah said. “They’ve been attacking all kinds of programs that help communities of color.”
