Marie Elizabeth Loughlin Dixon OTL

An occupational therapist is a person who has graduated from an entry-level occupational therapy program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) or predecessor organizations, or approved by the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT), or an equivalent international occupational therapy education program; has successfully completed a period of supervised fieldwork experience required by the occupational therapy program; has passed a nationally recognized entry-level examination for occupational therapists, and fulfills state requirements for licensure, certification, or registration. An occupational therapist provides interventions based on evaluation and which emphasize the therapeutic use of everyday life activities (i.e., occupations) with individuals or groups for the purpose of facilitating participation in roles and situations and in home, school, workplace, community and other settings. Occupational therapy services are provided for the purpose of promoting health and wellness and are provided to those who have or are at risk for developing an illness, injury, disease, disorder, condition, impairment, disability, activity limitation, or participation restriction. Occupational therapists address the physical, cognitive, psychosocial, sensory, and other aspects of occupational performance in a variety of contexts to support engagement in everyday life activities that affect health, well-being, and quality of life.

Occupational therapists enable children and adults with visual impairment to engage in their chosen daily living activities safely and as independently as possible. This is accomplished by 1) teaching the person to use their remaining vision as efficiently as possible to complete activities; (2) modifying activities so that they can be completed with less vision; (3) training the person in use of adaptive equipment to compensate for vision loss, including high and low technology assistive devices; and (4) modifying the person's environment.

Source: NUCC, CMS