to real cases, increased collaboration with professional experts to provide students with feedback, and intentional design to impact the community. The switch-adaptation lab provides students with an opportunity to learn and apply engineering principles while building a basic switch and battery interrupter. Students then use their equipment to switch-adapt toys and electronics, while discussing relevant case study applications. The adapted toy project challenges students to adapt an exist- ing toy or game to meet the needs of a disabled child in the community. Students collaborate with area OTPs to discuss real clients on their caseload who could benefit from an adapted toy, and design their adaptations based on the unique needs of that child. This activity allows students to not only implement components of the AT evaluation, development, and interven- tion process, but also provides them with the opportunity to engage in professional communication and collaboration with therapists in the field. The low-tech AT design project in this course has evolved significantly over time to expand its real- life application and impact on the community. Once an in-class project involving a quick presentation of design ideas to peers, the project now involves development of a prototype and pre- sentation to a panel of experts for contest judging. The expert panel includes therapists, community members, students, and professors from related departments such as engineering and kinesiology to provide design and usability feedback from their unique perspectives. This project is designed to mirror a student design competition held annually at the state’s oc- cupational therapy association conference. Students are able to submit their work to this competition at the end of the se- mester, providing them additional opportunity for professional presentation, resume building, and AT community impact. As OT education programs at any level engage in continu- ous quality improvement of their curriculum design, it is im- portant for them to consider the feedback of clinicians about their perceived level of preparedness for AT service provision as new graduates. Future directions at Methodist University include continued expansion of community partnerships that promote opportunities for students to gain more hands-on ex- perience with AT users across the lifespan, and to bring growth to community impact of the program through service learn- ing, collaborative research, and capstone projects. Though we know there are benefits of any effort to enhance to AT content in OT curriculum, it has not yet been determined whether one specific approach of integrating more robust AT-content into programs yields the most optimal academic and clinical out- comes. Further outcomes-driven research is indicated in this area to expand our understanding of the dynamic causes of gaps in AT knowledge amongst OTPs, therefore improving the preparedness of our graduates and the overall quality of AT ser- vice provision.
REFERENCES American Council on Occupational Therapy Education. (2018). 2018 Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Educa- tion (ACOTE) standards an interpretive guide . https://acoteo- nline.org/accreditation-explained/standards/ American Occupational Therapy Association. (2020). Oc- cupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process (4th ed.). American Journal of Occupational Ther- apy, 74(Suppl. 2), 7412410010. https://doi.Org/10.5014/ ajot.2020.74S2001 American Occupational Therapy Association. (2015). The role of occupational therapy in providing assistive technology de- vices and services . https://www.aota.org/about-occupation- al-therapy/professionals/RDP/assistive-technology.aspx AT content experts provide resources to students in addition to hands-on lab experiences, empowering them with community connections to utilize during fieldwork experiences and as future clinicians.
Cook, A., Polgar, J., & Encarnação, P. (2020). Assistive technolo-
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