Guidance & Tools

CDC developed the Clear Communication Index to identify the most important factors that increase clarity and aid understanding of public messages and materials.

The guidance and tools on this page can help make your health information accurate, accessible, and actionable.

Communication Guidance

• Clear Communication: An NIH Health Literacy Initiative
  National Institutes of Health
  NIH has established the Clear Communication initiative that focuses on achieving two key objectives of health literacy: Providing information in the form and with the content that is accessible to specific audiences based on cultural competence, and incorporating plain language approaches and new technologies.
• NIH National Cancer Institute “Pink Book” – Making Health Communication Programs Work
  National Cancer Institute
  This book describes a practical approach for planning and implementing health communication efforts. It covers a range of topics, from planning and strategy development, to pretesting materials, to implementing the campaign, to evaluation.

Material Assessment Tools

• Clear Communication Index
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  The CDC Clear Communication Index (Index) is a new research-based tool to plan and assess public communication materials. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed the Index to identify the most important factors that increase clarity and aid understanding of public messages and materials.
• Toolkit for Making Written Material Clear and Effective
  Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
  The Toolkit for Making Written Material Clear and Effective is a health literacy resource from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This 11-part Toolkit provides a detailed and comprehensive set of tools to help you make written material in printed formats easier for people to read, understand, and use.

Plain Language Materials & Resources

• Plain language makes it easier for everyone to understand and use health information. Although plain language is a familiar idea, many organizations don’t use it as often as they should. The Plain Writing Act of 2010 requires federal agencies to train staff and use plain language when they communicate with the public.

Web Communication Guidance

• Health Literacy Online Guide
  Department of Health and Human Services
  This guide is written for web designers, content specialists, and other public health communication professionals. The guide offers an overview of how to deliver online health information that is actionable and engaging, create a health web site that's easy to use, particularly for people with limited literacy skills and limited experience using the web, and evaluate and improve your health Web site with user-centered design.
• Usability.gov
  Department of Health and Human Services
  Usability.gov is a one-stop source for government web designers to learn how to make websites more usable, useful, and accessible. The site addresses a broad range of factors that go into web design and development. The site will help you to: Plan and design usable sites by collecting data on what users need, develop prototypes, conduct usability tests and write up results, and measure trends and demographics.