What is Low Vision Occupational Therapy?

Occupational Therapy in Low Vision Care: A Clinically Valid and Professionally Mandated Role

Occupational therapy is a healthcare profession defined and regulated by national licensure boards, practice frameworks, and clinical standards. Guided by the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework and operating under optometrist/ophthalmologist oversight, occupational therapists, specializing in low vision care, are uniquely positioned to address the complex interaction between a client’s vision, cognition, sensorimotor performance, and engagement in meaningful activities of daily living.

As practitioners trained in both medical and functional domains, these occupational therapists do not provide vision care in isolation. Instead, they assess and intervene at the intersection of body structures (including the visual system), body functions (such as visual perception, attention, and oculomotor control), and occupational performance. Their scope of practice includes evaluating and addressing performance skills (motor, process, and social interaction), client factors, and environmental or contextual variables that affect participation and independence.

Central to occupational therapy practice is the therapeutic use of occupation as both a means and an end. Purposeful, real-life activities—such as managing medications, preparing meals, reading, navigating environments, or engaging in social tasks—are used not only as goals of therapy but as tools to promote sensory integration, visual efficiency, cognitive engagement, and motor coordination. This evidence-based approach supports neuroplasticity, increases participation, and improves client outcomes in ways that are meaningful, measurable, and medically necessary.

Occupational therapy practitioners are recognized across the healthcare system as providers of rehabilitative and restorative care, not ancillary support. This recognition is reflected in federal policies such as Medicare, clinical referral expectations from ophthalmologists and optometrists, and national models of practice. Therapists follow structured protocols that include visual efficiency and compensatory strategy training, task-specific adaptations, restorative neurocognitive and perceptual interventions, and sensory-motor integration. These directly impact real-world outcomes such as fall prevention, medication management, reading, mobility, and psychosocial well-being.

Rather than duplicating services, occupational therapy brings essential clinical insight and structured intervention to the interprofessional low vision care team. This ensures that functional outcomes are addressed in a medically appropriate, evidence-based, and person-centered manner.