Combining the Certificate with the Post-Professional OTD
The Department of Occupational Therapy offers an online post-professional Clinical Doctorate in Occupational Therapy (OTD) to meet the needs of busy working occupational therapists who want to advance their careers and education. The online OTD aims to prepare experienced occupational therapists for important leadership roles in health care, academia and advocacy for professional and community organizations. The program is designed for part-time enrolment, with students taking one or two courses a semester.
The OTD program includes a Low Vision Rehabilitation track that allows students to complete the low vision certificate and apply those course hours toward the clinical doctorate degree. There are two options for using the graduate certificate degree as a credit hour track in the OTD.
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Option One: You can complete both degrees at the same time
- You may take the courses offered in the graduate certificate and in the OTD at the same time. The graduate certificate courses must be completed in sequence and you may only take one certificate course per semester.
- Students interested in completing both degrees must complete two separate applications to the graduate school: one application to be accepted into the low vision graduate certificate program and a separate application to be accepted into the occupational therapy clinical doctorate. Each application will require a separate fee.
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Option Two: You can complete the graduate certificate program first and then apply to continue on to complete the OTD
- You must apply and be accepted to the OTD within five years of obtaining your low vision certificate for the credit hours in the graduate certificate to transfer to the OTD.
If you already hold the graduate certificate degree and want to use the degree to meet course requirements in the OTD, you must complete the certificate degree within five years of acceptance into the OTD to use the certificate hours as the required clinical track in the OTD.
Shortened Pathway to the CLVT Credentials
We pride ourselves in preparing our graduates to become the leaders in the field of low vision rehabilitation. One mark of our success is the number of graduates who are able to meet the rigorous requirements to become credentialed as experts in low vision rehabilitation. The Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation & Education Professionals (ACVREP) offers advanced credentialing to occupational therapists in low vision.
Earn your CLVT quickly
ACVREP determined that graduates of the UAB certificate program qualify to apply in Category 1 for the CLVT. This enables our graduates to complete the CLVT exam while completing 350 hour practice requirement and significantly speeds up the time required to obtain the credential.