Vision Rehabilitation Content in Occupational Therapy Curricula in Arab Countries.

BACKGROUND

Vision rehabilitation (VR) is a relatively new field for occupational therapy (OT) in Arab countries. To date, no studies have examined VR content in the curricula of OT programs in these countries.

AIM

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the characteristics of VR content in the curricula of OT undergraduate programs in nine Arab countries.

METHODS

An online survey was created using Google Forms and used to collect the details regarding VR content in the OT curricula. The survey link was sent by email to the directors of 19 OT pro¬grams in these countries and the collected responses were analyzed.

RESULTS

Most program directors responded (n=16). Most programs (69%) covered some content of VR, whereas some programs (31%) did not. Most of the programs that covered VR had faculty members with a degree in VR (64%) and provided clinical internships at VR facilities (64%).

CONCLUSIONS

There was significant variability in the VR content, faculty qualifications, and characteristics of clinical internship between the OT programs in Arab countries. These results may help in the development of VR education in these programs and, consequently, may improve the VR knowledge and skills of these programs' graduates.