Welcome to WAFA, Postgraduate Learning and Professional Contribution

Welcome to the Working Animals Federation of Australia (WAFA) Assistance Animal Occupational Therapist (AAOT) Credential.

The Working Animals Federation of Australia is a peak body representing and supporting the advancement of working-animal practice across Australia.

WAFA recognises the important role that working animals play within Australian communities and is committed to supporting ethical, evidence-informed and professional practice across a broad range of working-animal roles, including:

• assistance animals;
• therapy animals;
• detection animals;
• education animals;
• support and wellbeing animals; and
• other recognised working-animal roles.

WAFA exists to promote excellence, improve standards, support professionals and advocate for the rights, welfare and appropriate recognition of working animals and the people who rely upon, work with and care for them.

Our work is guided by commitments to:

• animal welfare;
• ethical practice;
• accessibility and inclusion;
• evidence-informed decision-making;
• professional education;
• community understanding;
• interdisciplinary collaboration;
• professional accountability; and
• continuous improvement across the sector.

By commencing this credential, you are joining a growing professional community that aims not only to improve individual assistance-animal practice, but also to help shape the future of the sector.

Our Purpose

WAFA’s purpose is to strengthen the working-animal sector through:

• education;
• advocacy;
• research;
• collaboration;
• professional development;
• sector leadership; and
• community awareness.

We aim to contribute to a future where working animals are appropriately recognised and supported, animal welfare is embedded throughout practice, professionals have access to high-quality education and resources, handlers understand their rights and responsibilities, and working-animal systems become increasingly consistent, safe, accessible and accountable.

Advocacy and Sector Leadership

Advocacy forms an important part of WAFA’s work and occurs at both individual and systemic levels.

Individual advocacy may involve improving access to accurate information, helping people understand rights and responsibilities, reducing barriers, supporting effective communication and self-advocacy, and promoting appropriate consideration of animal welfare.

Systemic advocacy looks beyond an individual case to the structures that shape working-animal practice. This may include contributing to policy discussions, identifying gaps within existing systems, promoting consistent standards, improving professional education and guidance, supporting animal-welfare protections and advocating for safer and more accessible systems.

WAFA recognises that meaningful change requires both:

supporting people within the systems that exist today

and

working to improve those systems for the future.

Education and Professional Development

Education is central to WAFA’s mission.

Working-animal practice involves complex interactions between animals, humans, disability, occupation, health, community access, law, animal welfare, ethics, communication, professional scope, safety and environmental context.

High-quality education is therefore important for people who work with, alongside or make professional recommendations concerning working animals.

WAFA develops education and professional-development opportunities for working-animal professionals, health professionals, animal professionals, educators, handlers, organisations, researchers, community members and other stakeholders involved in working-animal practice.

WAFA Credentials — Building Professional Excellence

WAFA credentials provide structured advanced education and professional-development pathways across the working-animal sector.

They deliberately extend beyond technical animal-training skills. Effective working-animal practice may require practitioners to understand and integrate knowledge concerning:

• animal behaviour and welfare;
• human–animal relationships;
• disability, occupation and participation;
• ethics and professional responsibilities;
• law and policy;
• risk and safety;
• accessibility;
• interdisciplinary collaboration;
• communication; and
• evidence-informed decision-making.

WAFA credentials are intended to support advanced learning, workplace application, professional reflection, interdisciplinary understanding, continuing improvement and contribution to sector knowledge.

Welcome to the AAOT Credential

The WAFA Assistance Animal Occupational Therapist Credential has been developed for occupational therapists seeking advanced knowledge, skills and professional capability in assistance-animal practice.

It responds to the need for occupational therapists to have specialised education concerning the complex interaction between disability, occupational performance, assistance animals, animal welfare, professional reasoning, evidence, law, risk and interdisciplinary practice.

The AAOT Credential aims to support occupational therapists to:

• understand the role assistance animals may play within occupational performance and participation;
• apply occupational therapy reasoning to assistance-animal practice;
• understand the broader assistance-animal sector;
• collaborate effectively with animal professionals and other disciplines;
• recognise professional boundaries, scope and individual competence;
• understand animal-welfare considerations;
• critically evaluate evidence;
• support ethical and evidence-informed decision-making;
• identify and evaluate risk;
• understand relevant legal and professional contexts;
• contribute to safer and more effective practice;
• educate clients, professionals and communities; and
• advocate for improved outcomes for people and animals.

A Structured Professional Pathway for Occupational Therapists

To WAFA’s knowledge at the time of publication, the AAOT Credential is the first structured comprehensive credential pathway identified by WAFA specifically for occupational therapists practising in the assistance-animal sector.

It brings together advanced professional education, workplace application, evidence-informed practice, interdisciplinary learning, professional reflection, research literacy, professional contribution and continuing sector engagement.

Assistance-animal occupational therapy sits at the intersection of multiple disciplines and areas of knowledge, including occupational therapy, disability studies, veterinary science, animal behaviour and training, psychology, education, law, ethics, public health, animal welfare and human–animal interaction.

You are not expected to become an expert in every discipline.

Instead, AAOT aims to develop the professional judgement required to ask:

What do I know?

What is within my professional scope and individual competence?

What don’t I know?

What evidence do I need?

When do I need another professional?

How do I justify my decision?

Knowing when to collaborate, consult or refer is itself an important professional competency.

The distinctions between professional scope, individual competence and the roles of other professions are explored throughout the credential.

Bring Your Occupational Therapy Perspective

You are not undertaking AAOT simply to become an animal trainer who happens to be an occupational therapist.

Your occupational therapy expertise remains central.

Throughout the credential, continue to ask:

• What occupations matter to this person?
• What are their goals?
• What does this issue mean for occupational performance and participation?
• What environmental and contextual factors are relevant?
• How might an animal influence participation?
• What are the potential benefits?
• What are the risks?
• What are the animal-welfare implications?
• Could another intervention achieve the same goal?
• What is within my professional scope and individual competence?
• Who else should be involved?
• What evidence supports this decision?
• How would I justify my reasoning?

The specialist assistance-animal knowledge developed through AAOT should complement rather than replace your occupational therapy expertise.

Advanced and Postgraduate-Level Learning Expectations

The AAOT Credential has been designed as an advanced professional-development pathway written toward an AQF Level 9 standard.

It is not presently a TEQSA-accredited qualification or university degree.

Learning at this level requires substantially more than remembering information. Participants are expected to progressively develop their ability to:

• locate and critically evaluate evidence;
• integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines;
• analyse complex information;
• apply concepts to unfamiliar situations;
• identify competing perspectives;
• exercise advanced professional judgement;
• justify clinical and professional decisions;
• evaluate limitations and uncertainty;
• synthesise evidence;
• communicate at an advanced professional level; and
• develop evidence-informed approaches to assistance-animal practice.

The question is therefore not merely:

Do you know this information?

It is also:

Can you understand it, analyse it, apply it, evaluate it and justify the decisions you make using it?

The way competency is assessed, including assessment flexibility, reasonable adjustment, remediation and graduation requirements, is explained separately in How Assessment and Competency Work in AAOT.

Future Accreditation Pathway

The current AAOT Credential is not presently a TEQSA-accredited qualification or university degree.

WAFA has developed the credential with reference to higher-education expectations and intends to explore an appropriate pathway toward formal recognition at AQF Level 9.

Formal accreditation or qualification approval is a substantial educational and regulatory undertaking involving curriculum development, governance, quality assurance, specialist input, education-provider arrangements, regulatory processes, assessment validation, financial investment and significant organisational work.

WAFA therefore cannot guarantee that accreditation will occur, the form that any future qualification may take, or a particular approval or commencement date.

If an accredited pathway becomes available in the future, WAFA intends to explore opportunities for existing AAOT graduates to seek transition, upgrade or recognition of prior learning where possible.

Any such arrangements would be subject to the requirements applying at that time, including the final approved qualification structure, regulatory and education-provider requirements, recognition-of-prior-learning rules, currency of learning and any additional study or assessment requirements.

Completion of the present AAOT Credential therefore does not guarantee automatic credit, a particular amount of advanced standing or automatic entry into any future accredited qualification.

Further information will be provided if and when an approved pathway exists.

The Course Material Is a Starting Point

The learning material supplied within AAOT provides a structured foundation.

It is not intended to be the beginning and end of your learning.

Postgraduate-level professional learning requires independent inquiry. Throughout AAOT, you will be encouraged—and for substantial assessments may be expected—to consult credible sources beyond the material provided by WAFA.

These may include:

• peer-reviewed research;
• systematic reviews;
• books;
• legislation and case law;
• government publications;
• professional standards and guidelines;
• veterinary literature;
• animal-behaviour and welfare literature;
• disability-led resources;
• relevant grey literature; and
• other credible sources appropriate to the question being considered.

Simply repeating course material will not necessarily demonstrate the required depth of learning.

A Developing Evidence Base

Some areas of assistance-animal practice have a considerably stronger research base than others.

Professional and sector knowledge may arise from peer-reviewed research, legislation, professional and regulatory guidance, clinical and industry experience, animal-training practice, organisational guidance, disability and handler lived experience, policy and emerging professional consensus.

These forms of knowledge should not automatically be treated as equivalent.

Throughout AAOT, you will learn to distinguish between:

• strong empirical evidence;
• emerging research evidence;
• professional or regulatory guidance;
• common professional or industry practice;
• expert opinion;
• lived-experience knowledge;
• organisational policy; and
• areas where evidence remains uncertain.

Where evidence is limited, say so.

“There is currently insufficient evidence to reach a firm conclusion” can be a strong professional and academic conclusion.

Help Us Strengthen the Evidence Base

WAFA is actively working to strengthen the research and evidence base surrounding working animals.

Our resources and references are reviewed regularly, but no course or organisation can guarantee that it has identified every relevant source or development.

If you identify an important new paper, systematic review, relevant older source, legislative development, case, professional guideline, international research, contradictory evidence, incorrect reference, outdated statement or another important resource, please tell us.

Your contribution may improve the credential for future participants and the broader assistance-animal sector.

If credible evidence contradicts WAFA’s current material, we want to know that too.

Critical analysis is encouraged.

You are not expected to agree with WAFA simply because WAFA wrote the course.

Follow Your Curiosity

When something interests you:

• follow the reference;
• find the original source;
• see who cited it;
• explore the author’s other work;
• look for systematic reviews;
• search for contradictory evidence;
• investigate unfamiliar terminology; and
• ask whether newer evidence has changed what we know.

A credential should provide structure.

It should also stimulate further inquiry.

Join the WAFA Professional Community

AAOT is intended to be more than an individual online course.

Participants are encouraged to engage with the broader WAFA professional learning community by asking questions, discussing complex practice issues, sharing research and useful resources, considering emerging evidence, learning from other occupational therapists and developing interdisciplinary professional connections.

Professional privacy, confidentiality, ethical obligations and respectful communication must always be maintained.

Participation does not require frequent posting. Reading discussions, considering different perspectives and engaging when useful can also contribute to professional learning.

From Learner to Contributor

AAOT is intended to develop professionals who contribute to the field rather than simply consume information.

High-quality work developed through AAOT may provide the foundation for:

• peer-reviewed or professional publication;
• conference presentations or posters;
• professional or community education;
• research;
• advocacy;
• policy work;
• resource development; or
• other contributions to the assistance-animal sector.

Publication is not required for graduation.

It is an opportunity.

If your AAOT studies contribute meaningfully to something you later publish, present or share, WAFA welcomes appropriate acknowledgement of the role that your AAOT learning played.

For example, you might explain that work was developed during your AAOT studies, inspired by an AAOT project, commenced as an AAOT assessment or informed by learning undertaken through WAFA.

Any acknowledgement must remain accurate. It should not imply that WAFA authored, endorsed, supervised or formally approved work where this did not occur.

Share Knowledge, Not Protected Course Materials

WAFA encourages participants to share what they learn and independently create.

This does not mean that AAOT course materials themselves may be freely distributed.

Course materials may contain copyrighted material, trade marks, proprietary or confidential information, assessment content, restricted resources and third-party material used under licence or permission.

Participants must not publicly upload or redistribute restricted AAOT materials, reproduce substantial WAFA material without permission, republish WAFA templates as their own, share confidential material, use WAFA branding without appropriate permission or represent themselves as speaking officially for WAFA without authority.

A useful distinction is:

Learn from it → Research further → Reference appropriately → Create something of your own

rather than:

Copy it → Redistribute it → Present it as your own

Detailed requirements concerning referencing, attribution, academic integrity and intellectual property are addressed in the following Foundation topics.

If you are uncertain whether particular material may be reproduced, ask WAFA.

Volunteer and Contribute Through WAFA

Participants and graduates who wish to contribute directly to WAFA’s mission are welcome to discuss opportunities with us.

This may include contributing to:

• factsheets and handler guides;
• professional guidance;
• evidence summaries and literature reviews;
• educational and public-awareness resources;
• accessibility initiatives;
• research and evaluation;
• policy and advocacy resources;
• professional-development content; or
• other useful community resources.

Where participants genuinely contribute intellectual or creative work to WAFA projects, WAFA seeks to provide appropriate authorship, co-authorship, attribution or contributor recognition according to the nature and extent of the contribution.

We expect the same academic honesty from ourselves that we expect from participants.

Small Project Support

WAFA maintains a small funding pool for eligible projects and initiatives, subject to availability, organisational priorities and approval.

If your AAOT learning identifies a worthwhile research, education, evaluation, resource-development, advocacy, accessibility or community project, you are welcome to discuss the idea with WAFA.

Funding is not guaranteed.

However, we encourage participants to consider how their learning might develop into meaningful professional or community contribution.

Capstone projects may also continue beyond completion of the credential through research, workplace projects, advocacy, publication or community education.

AAOT Is a Continuing Professional Credential

Conferral of AAOT is not the end of a credential holder’s professional responsibilities to WAFA.

Maintaining active AAOT status and continued listing on the WAFA Registry requires compliance with applicable ongoing credential requirements.

These may include annual renewal and professional-standing requirements, maintenance of relevant registration, screening and insurance, continuing professional development, supervision, engagement requirements and completion of WAFA’s Annual AAOT Practice Statistics return.

Annual de-identified statistical reporting also contributes to WAFA’s developing understanding of assistance-animal occupational therapy practice and the broader evidence base.

Detailed graduate and renewal requirements are provided separately and may be updated over time.

Before You Continue

Before commencing the substantive AAOT units, ensure that you have completed the required enrolment and readiness documentation and any pre-study activities provided by WAFA.

The Pre-Study Research Questionnaire should be completed using your current knowledge and understanding without researching the answers first.

It provides a baseline against which changes in your knowledge and professional reasoning can later be considered.

Keep a copy of your completed documentation for your records and submit the required material to WAFA in accordance with the enrolment instructions provided.

Welcome to AAOT.

We encourage you to approach the credential with curiosity, critical thinking, professional humility and a willingness to contribute.

You are not expected to begin AAOT knowing everything. You are expected to finish it better equipped to recognise what you know, identify what you do not know, find and evaluate the evidence you need, collaborate appropriately and make defensible professional decisions.