Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapy (OT) is a health/rehabilitation profession whose practitioners work in a wide variety of settings including acute care hospitals, rehabilitation centers, psychiatric hospitals, community mental health facilities, schools, and nursing homes, to name a few. This profession contributes to the physical and emotional independence; and the well-being of an individual or group of people through the selection of occupations or activities from everyday life that have meaning and purpose to the individual. This enables the individual to gain, regain, enhance, or prevent loss of habits, skills, tasks, routines or roles that the individual has performed in the past, or is learning to perform in order to participate fully as a contributing member of his or her community or personal environment. Occupational therapists provide services and programs for people of all ages who have physical, emotional, social, or developmental problems. Occupational therapy involves finding the right occupations or activities, designing the right environment, or creating the right opportunities for experiences that lead towards health, independence of function and the prevention of dysfunction. 

Occupational Therapy Program 

1. Accreditation Status: The Occupational Therapy Program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), located at 6116 Executive Boulevard Suite 200, North Bethesda, MD 20852-4929. ACOTE’S telephone number, c/o AOTA, is (301) 652-6611 and its web address is www.acoteonline.org.

2. Next Re-Accreditation Site Visit: 2026

3. The program is accredited for 10 years since 2015-2016

4. Professional Examination Scores: The examination agency for occupational therapy graduates is the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT). Their address is One Bank Street, Suite 300, Gaithersburg, MD 20878. NBCOT's phone number is (301) 990-7979. Program examination results can be found at this web address: https://www.nbcot.org/en/educators/home#schoolperformance. 

5. The National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) program data for Tuskegee University's Occupational Therapy Program can be found at the following web address: https://www.nbcot.org/en/educators/home#schoolperformance.

The total number of graduates from our program during the three-year period of 2019 to 2021 was 68.

Helpful Links

• Occupational Therapy Curriculum
• Tuskegee University Student Occupational Therapy Association
     

Occupational Therapy Program Requirements

After successful completion of (6) six months of full time fieldwork experience in an occupational therapy program and passing the NBCOT exam, the individual will be an Occupational Therapist, Registered (OTR). Most states require licensure in order to practice; however, state licenses are usually based on the results of the NBCOT Certification Examination.

A felony conviction may affect a graduate's ability to sit for the certification exam or attain state licensure.

Tuskegee University offers a Master of Science degree in Occupational Therapy.
This program is designed to prepare students in:

• Occupational Science
• Biological and Behavioral Sciences
• Health/Rehabilitation Services
• Human Developmental Processes
• Evaluation and Analysis of Specific Life Tasks and Occupations
• Therapeutic Processes and Procedures
• Professional Communication and Management
• Scholarly Activities Related to Research and Evidence Based Practice
     

The Occupational Therapy student must possess the ability to:

• Travel to community training locations for instruction, observation and/or evaluation
• Comprehend, analyze, integrate and synthesize general and technical information, ideas and concepts presented in written, audio and visual forms
• Apply basic principles and concepts in business, bioethics and the social, behavioral, psychological, physical and biological sciences to the logical solution of problems in the field of occupational therapy
• Function effectively, efficiently and flexibly under stress and changing conditions
• Objectively observe and evaluate conditions and/or practices related to occupational therapy
• Display mature, ethical judgment in decision making
• Set up, adapt, and utilize a variety of media, occupations and equipment for therapeutic intervention among a diverse population
• Understand and utilize evidence based practice in occupational therapy
• Design and implement beginning level research studies
• Understand and utilize evidence based practice in occupational therapy
• Participate in and understand the value of scholarly activities
• Understand the process of securing grants

Occupational Therapy Graduate Program

All students must meet certain criteria to gain admission to the Master of Science program in Occupational Therapy. All pre‐professional students must be admitted to the University through the Admissions Office. Admission to the pre‐professional or undergraduate curriculum is designed to develop foundational knowledge necessary for entry to the professional or graduate phase of the program.

View the requirements for the MS degree in Occupational Therapy at the following link:

• MS - Occupational Therapy