Somebody looking for health information online may be only a couple of clicks away from getting the resources and information they need.
The organization’s webpage is live. The information the reader needs is there. The instructions and web forms are available. But the person on the other side of the screen is still unsure of what to do next.
Is this the correct, or official website? Is this information best for my situation? What do these big words mean? What happens after I submit the form and what happens to my information?
Publishing information does not guarantee that it will be understandable to the people it is intended to serve. This distinction is reflected in the way we have started to define health literacy.
Healthy People 2030, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that establishes national health objectives, distinguishes between personal health literacy and organizational health literacy. (odphp.health.gov)
Personal health literacy focuses on an individual’s ability to find, understand, and use health information and services when making decisions. Organizational health literacy shifts part of that responsibility to the institutions providing the information, asking whether they enable people to successfully find, understand and use it.
Understanding health information requires effort from the person looking for it. However, organizations can influence whether that information is easy to find, understandable, and usable through the way they write, organize, and deliver it.
Making information available is already a considerable task. So how can organizations determine whether what they publish is actually accessible to the people they serve?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed a tool to assess the quality of “public communication materials” by developing the Clear Communication Index to address these challenges and more. Its criteria evaluates whether public-facing information has a clear main message, places important information near the beginning and uses familiar language intended for the organization’s readers. (cdc.gov)
The tool also asks whether the communication makes the desired action clear and whether the information is presented in a way that helps readers understand what they are expected to do next.
Access measures a few dimensions of communication. Availability is only one part of the delivery. Organizations can begin by asking a few simple questions about the resources they provide:
Is the resource easy to find?
Can people understand it?
Can they act on it?
Making health information available is necessary. Making it understandable and usable is what turns availability into access.