Technical Standards and Essential Functions
Becoming an occupational therapist is an engaging journey that promotes intellectual growth, emotional resilience, and hands-on skill development. The program is designed to support students in fully participating in both academic learning and clinical experiences, ensuring they are well-prepared to meet the requirements for the Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) degree.
Aligned with the principles of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the program is committed to creating an inclusive and empowering learning environment that recognizes and values each student’s unique strengths. For students with documented disabilities, the program collaborates with them to identify opportunities for reasonable accommodations that enhance their learning experience and support the development of essential skills. This is a student-led process, with faculty and staff providing guidance and resources to help students thrive. Mass General Brigham University of Health Professions welcomes all qualified applicants who demonstrate the ability to achieve the program's competencies, with or without reasonable accommodations. Students with questions about these standards are encouraged to connect with the Office of Accessibility Resources for support and information.
All students are supported in meeting the technical standards of the program, with appropriate accommodations available for classroom learning, lab activities, examinations, and fieldwork experiences. "Technical standards refer to all non-academic criteria that are essential to participation in the program and include cognitive, communication, sensory and motor functions” (AOTA, 2024). These standards are designed to highlight the key cognitive, intellectual, physical, sensory, professional, communication, and behavioral skills that contribute to student success throughout the program. The goal is to foster an environment where every student has the opportunity to excel and contribute meaningfully to the field of occupational therapy.
The following technical standards are considered necessary for full participation:
Communication Functions
- Read, understand, and communicate information in written and spoken formats using the English language.
- Attend, selectively and in a controlled manner, written, spoken and non-verbal communication in both quiet and noisy environments.
Cognitive Functions
Use a variety of sources, including reading material, lecture, discussion, personal conversation, observation, andphysical examinations to:
- Recall, interpret, extrapolate, and apply information.
- Measure, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information from a variety of sources.
- Gather and prioritize information needed to solve a problem.
- Respond appropriately to emerging problems and potentially hazardous situations by making timely judgments to react effectively and seek assistance when necessary.
- Demonstrate basic computer literacy, including common software.
Affective Functions
- Interact with other individuals utilizing tone, attitude, and body language that demonstrate respect for others.
- Establish trusting, empathetic, and non-judgmental relationships with a variety of individuals.
- Examine and change their behavior when it interferes with productive relationships with others.
- Attend to cognitive, communication, and psychomotor tasks for as long as ten hours/day.
- Actively participate (listen, attend, read, engage in physical activity, communicate, etc.) in learning in a variety of settings, including classrooms, labs, team/group meetings, and clinical settings.
- Meet established deadlines.
- Demonstrate successful self-regulation, cognitive flexibility, and resilience behaviors.
- Demonstrate core values of honesty, integrity, and accountability.
- Reason and act in an ethical manner.
Psychomotor functions
- Possess physical strength, stamina, balance, movement control, hand-eye coordination, and dexterity required to perform patient care tasks in a manner that does not compromise the safety of self or others.
- Perform intermittent physical activity of the whole body throughout an eight to ten-hour period.
- Engage in complex, coordinated movements needed during a variety of activities including skills lab practice; patient examination, intervention, and guarding; CPR, etc.
- Use auditory, visual, and tactile senses to receive information from written, spoken, and non-verbal communication mechanisms; observation of human structures; postures and movements; contexts and environments, and equipment and or technology.
- Physically respond quickly to sudden or unexpected events or movements of others.