Clara Fong and Kelly Percival reported this development for Brennen Center for Justice. Here  is an excerpt:

Differential undercounts have been a long-standing issue in the census, and concern about their effects on the accuracy of the 2020 results is widespread. While the census typically counts the total number of people living in the country accurately, it has historically undercounted many communities of color and overcounted white communities. The bureau’s major quality checks on the 2020 census showed that it faced the same serious data problems as past counts, with people identifying as Black, Hispanic, or Native American experiencing particularly marked undercounts.

A broad cast of stakeholders ranging from civil rights organizations to leading statisticians submitted comments urging the bureau to limit undercounts going forward. Their recommendations emphasize the importance of community input at every stage of the census process, from early research and design to data collection to data processing.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, for example, encouraged the bureau to partner with community representatives to research improved messaging and advertising campaigns targeted at undercounted groups. The Leadership Conference also suggested that the bureau identify ways to increase the census’s accessibility to language minorities and people with disabilities — including by expanding the number of languages the census is offered in and developing text and verbal assistance for people who need accommodations.

Read the full article here.