Guidelines for Advertising, Promoting, or Announcing Courses Offered for ASHA CEUs

ASHA Approved CE Providers must adhere to these guidelines in all (print or electronic) course promotional efforts mentioning the availability of ASHA CEUs. These guidelines must be followed for all courses offered for ASHA CEUs, whether in-service, cooperative offering, self-study, or other.

Course promotional efforts must include all of the following:

compliant speaker/instructor disclosure statements in required format and properly placed
the ASHA Approved CE Provider's Brand Block
the required course information containing the number of ASHA CEUs the course is offered for and the course's instructional level (Introductory, Intermediate, Advanced, or Various).

In addition to these guidelines for promotional materials, you will want to review other learner communications [DOC] made available to learners to ensure ongoing compliance with the CEB's requirements.

Speaker/Instructor Disclosure Statement (Content, Format, and Placement)

As part of the implementation of Requirement 3: Transparency in Course Planning, Delivery, and Marketing [PDF], disclosures for speaker/instructor must be included whenever promotional efforts mention the availability of ASHA CEUs.

1. Required content of each speaker/instructor disclosure statement

A speaker/instructor disclosure statement must be provided for each speaker. It is not acceptable to state "The speakers have nothing to disclose" or "The speakers have no conflicts" or other similar blanket statements. Each speaker's disclosure statement must contain the following:

A statement regarding the presence or absence of relevant financial relationship(s). Relevant financial relationships are those relationships in which the individual benefits by receiving an honorarium, salary, royalty, intellectual property rights, gift, speaking fee, consulting fee, honoraria, ownership interest (e.g., stocks, stock options, or other ownership interest, excluding diversified mutual funds), or other financial benefit. Financial relationships can also include "contracted research," where the institution gets the grant and manages the funds and the individual is the principal or named investigator on the grant.
A statement regarding the presence or absence of relevant nonfinancial relationship(s). Relevant non-financial relationships are those relationships that might bias an individual, including any personal, professional, political, institutional, religious, or other relationship. Such nonfinancial relationships may also include personal interest or cultural bias.

2. Required format of the speaker/instructor disclosure statement

Each speaker's disclosure statement must follow this format:

Disclosure: The name of the speaker/instructor followed by the relevant financial relationship(s)—list the name of the organization and the type of financial relationship—and relevant nonfinancial relationship(s)—list the name of the organization and the type of nonfinancial relationship—or a statement that no relevant financial or nonfinancial relationships exist.

3. Required placement of speaker/instructor disclosure statement

Disclosure information should be easily accessible to potential attendees. For example, if your attendee receives a print brochure with all your course information, but you put the disclosure information on a website, this forces attendees to access a website to get all the information about the course. If you promote courses via print-based materials, disclosure information should appear in the printed promotional materials. If promotional materials appear on a website, disclosures should be readily accessible on the website. If your promotional efforts involve e-mail, the disclosure statements should be included in the e-mail promotions.

The disclosure statement (whether print or electronic communication) must be placed adjacent to each speaker's name and bio (if applicable). If you are having challenges developing your print-based promotional materials so that they include the disclosure information or other required elements, contact your ASHA CE Provider Manager for guidance.

ASHA Approved CE Provider Brand Block and Required Sentence

Promotional efforts where ASHA CEUs are mentioned must also contain the ASHA Approved CE Provider's Brand Block and the required course information indicating the course's ASHA CEUs, and instructional level. The course information should be formatted using the following example information as a template: