The Centre made a submission to the Optometry Council of Australia and New Zealand (OCANZ) about its proposed new accreditation standards.

Optometry is a health profession that helps people look after their eyes and vision.

Accreditation standards are the rules that tell universities how they must teach and assess students.

The Centre made 10 recommendations to ensure that the standards require optometry students to learn how to provide high-quality and accessible eye care for people with intellectual disability.
 

Our recommendations are to:

1. Name intellectual disability and other cognitive disability in the guiding principles of the program
    
2. Require clinical training to include people with intellectual disability
    
3. Reference the Intellectual Disability Health Capability Framework and include curriculum mapping against it as evidence
    
4. Add guidance on supported decision-making, consent and reasonable adjustments to what students should learn
    
5. Involve people with intellectual disability in program design and delivery
    
6. Assess students' capability to care for diverse patients, including people with intellectual disability
    
7. Clinical supervisors should have relevant skills and experience, where available
    
8. Add disability-related terms to the Standards' glossary
    
9. Include competency standards in Optometry Australia's Entry-level Competency Standards for Optometry
    
10. Report to the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing on how the revised Standards address the health of people with intellectual disability and other cognitive disability.
     

We said we would be pleased to support OCANZ and optometry education providers to implement these recommendations, including through resources that support the Framework and assistance with curriculum mapping.

You can read our submission here.