In addition to the nationally recognised prerequisite training required for AAOT, participants are expected to engage with a range of foundation professional-development learning areas during the credential.

These learning areas sit alongside, but are different from, the nationally recognised prerequisite qualifications.

They have been selected because assistance-animal practice occurs at the intersection of human health, disability, animal welfare, safeguarding, human rights, social circumstances, professional ethics and community participation. An Occupational Therapist working in this area may therefore encounter issues that extend well beyond the technical assessment of whether an animal can perform particular tasks.

The foundation learning broadens the human-rights, disability, safeguarding, inclusion, health and social-context knowledge required for safe, ethical and person-centred assistance-animal practice.

Areas include:

• human rights;
• international human-rights frameworks;
• the Human Rights Model of Disability;
• supported decision-making;
• NDIS participant and worker rights and responsibilities;
• First Nations cultural awareness;
• neurodivergent-affirming practice;
• refugee rights and experiences;
• LGBTQ+ inclusion;
• child protection and safeguarding;
• trauma-informed practice;
• vision-related practice;
• manual handling and safe lifting;
• addiction;
• suicide awareness;
• domestic and family violence;
• modern slavery;
• homelessness; and
• other social and safeguarding contexts relevant to assistance-animal practice.

These subjects are included because AAOT practice concerns the whole person, the animal, their occupations, relationships and environments.

Why Does WAFA Use External Courses?

WAFA has deliberately chosen to make use of existing education produced by organisations with recognised expertise in their respective fields rather than unnecessarily recreating training that is already available.

The external providers and resources identified in this section have been selected because they offer useful education within areas relevant to contemporary assistance-animal practice.

This allows participants to learn about specialist subjects from organisations whose primary expertise lies in areas such as:

• human rights;
• disability;
• cultural awareness;
• safeguarding;
• trauma;
• neurodiversity;
• mental health;
• violence and abuse;
• social disadvantage; and
• inclusion.

WAFA can then focus its own educational material on a different question:

What does this knowledge mean when working with an assistance-animal team?

This approach helps avoid unnecessary duplication while allowing AAOT participants to draw upon specialist external knowledge and then integrate that knowledge into Occupational Therapy and assistance-animal practice.

Why Have These Particular Topics Been Included?

The selection of foundation learning has also been informed by WAFA’s experience within the assistance-animal sector.

WAFA receives enquiries and requests for guidance from people and professionals working across areas including:

• allied health;
• medicine;
• veterinary practice;
• animal training;
• disability services;
• education;
• workplaces;
• community organisations;
• assistance-animal organisations; and
• other professional and service settings.

Many of these enquiries involve issues that cannot be understood solely through knowledge of assistance-animal training.

Questions may involve:

• human rights;
• disability discrimination;
• client autonomy;
• supported decision-making;
• trauma;
• safeguarding;
• cultural considerations;
• neurodivergence;
• domestic and family violence;
• homelessness;
• mental-health crisis;
• animal welfare;
• professional boundaries;
• competing rights;
• risk;
• ethical decision-making; or
• the interaction between several of these factors.

Recurring enquiries of this kind have helped inform the foundation learning areas incorporated into AAOT.

The intention is to prepare participants not only for straightforward assistance-animal assessments, but also for the complex human situations that can arise around them.

Required Learning Areas and Suggested Resources

The learning areas below form part of the expected AAOT foundation learning.

The listed resources are recommended resources currently identified by WAFA.

For these non-nationally recognised foundation activities, WAFA is primarily interested in whether you can understand and appropriately apply the relevant concepts, rather than whether every participant has completed exactly the same external course.

If you have already undertaken the same or substantially equivalent education, you generally do not need to repeat learning merely for the sake of repetition.

Equivalent prior learning may satisfy the external-learning component where you can demonstrate your understanding through the accompanying:

• reflective questions;
• assistance-animal scenarios;
• case studies; and
• application activities.

If you cannot confidently apply the relevant concepts, WAFA strongly recommends that you complete or revisit the suggested training.

Unlike the nationally recognised prerequisite qualifications, WAFA does not require certificates of completion for these non-accredited foundation courses.

Your engagement with the accompanying AAOT activities provides the primary evidence that you have understood the subject matter and can relate it appropriately to assistance-animal practice.

Foundation Learning Resources

Foundation Study Area	Suggested Resource
Introduction to Human Rights	Australian Human Rights Commission eLearning — https://humanrights.gov.au/resource-hub/training/elearning
United Nations Human Rights Frameworks	Australian Human Rights Commission eLearning — https://humanrights.gov.au/resource-hub/training/elearning
Human Rights Model of Disability	DARU — https://daru.org.au/course/human-rights-model-of-disability/
Supported Decision-Making Practice Framework	DARU — https://daru.org.au/course/support-for-decision-making-practice-framework/
NDIS Worker Orientation & New Worker Induction	NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission — https://www.ndiscommission.gov.au/workforce/online-training-modules
Indigenous Cultural Awareness Training	https://ohs.com.au/products/indigenous-cultural-awareness-training-online
Neurodivergent-Affirming Practices	Divergantz Professional Certificate in Neurodivergent Affirming Practices — first module required/recommended as specified by WAFA; remaining modules optional — https://divergantz.com.au/education/
Rights of Refugees	Amnesty International Academy — https://academy.amnesty.org/learn/courses/312/the-rights-of-refugees
LGBTQ+ Inclusion	We Create Space — https://www.wecreatespace.co/free-lgbtq-inclusion-online-course
Child Protection Training	ChildSafe — Child Protection Level 1 / National Principles Training — https://www.childsafe.org.au/courses/
Trauma-Informed Care	https://traumainformedcaretraining.com/free-trauma-informed-care-courses/ and/or https://www.thecentreforhealing.com/free-courses
Vision Australia / Vision-Related Learning	Vision Australia resources for Occupational Therapists and support workers — https://www.visionaustralia.org/healthcare-professionals/resources/OT-support-worker-courses
Manual Handling and Safe Lifting	https://www.courses.generalpracticetraining.com.au/course/work-health-and-safety-whs-manual-handling-and-safe-lifting/
Understanding Addiction	The Centre for Healing — https://www.thecentreforhealing.com/free-courses
Suicide Awareness	Zero Suicide Alliance — https://www.zerosuicidealliance.com/suicide-awareness-training
Modern Slavery	My Blue Sky — https://mybluesky.org.au/i-am-a-frontline-worker
Homelessness	OpenLearn — https://www.open.edu/openlearn/course/

Availability and Changes to External Resources

At the time these resources were selected, many or all were available free of charge.

However, WAFA does not control external providers.

External courses may:

• change content;
• change provider;
• move to a different webpage;
• introduce fees;
• alter enrolment requirements;
• be replaced;
• become temporarily unavailable; or
• cease to exist.

If a listed resource is no longer available, please advise WAFA.

An appropriate alternative resource may be substituted where approved by WAFA or where the AAOT instructions permit sufficiently equivalent prior learning.

The purpose is to achieve the relevant learning outcome, not to require completion of an unavailable resource.

From External Learning to Assistance-Animal Practice

Completing an external course is only the first step.

A general human-rights course, for example, may explain principles of equality, dignity, autonomy and discrimination.

AAOT asks you to go further:

What might those principles mean when assessing whether an assistance animal is appropriate?

A trauma-informed course may explain trauma and trauma-responsive practice.

AAOT asks:

How might trauma influence the assessment process, professional communication, handling of an assistance animal, public-access experiences or interactions between professionals and the handler?

A supported decision-making course might explain autonomy and decision support.

AAOT asks:

How would I apply this when a client, family member, support worker and professional have different views about whether an assistance animal is appropriate?

Child-protection education may explain safeguarding obligations.

AAOT asks:

What changes when the proposed assistance-animal handler is a child?

This process of learning → reflection → application → professional reasoning is the purpose of the accompanying AAOT activities.

Foundation Learning Reflection & Application Workbook

A Foundation Learning Reflection & Application Workbook is provided below for use throughout the AAOT Credential.

The workbook contains reflective questions, professional prompts, ethical dilemmas, scenarios and assistance-animal case studies associated with the foundation learning areas in this section.

You may begin completing the workbook now, as you undertake the external foundation learning.

You are not expected to produce perfect or final answers on your first attempt.

In fact, you are encouraged to return to the workbook throughout AAOT.

You might:

1. complete an external learning activity;
2. answer the associated questions based upon your current understanding;
3. continue through the AAOT units;
4. encounter new evidence, legislation, perspectives or professional concepts;
5. return to an earlier response; and
6. add to, qualify or reconsider your original reasoning.

Do not erase an earlier response merely because your thinking later changes.

Where practical, retain your original thinking and add a dated later reflection.

For example:

Initial response — September 2026:
I initially considered…

Revisited — February 2027:
After completing the welfare and legal units, I would now approach this differently because…

Recognising that your professional reasoning has changed can itself provide valuable evidence of learning.

These Activities Are Formative, Not Separately Graded Assessments

The Foundation Learning Reflection & Application Workbook is not intended to function as another collection of formal marked assignments.

The activities are formative.

There are rarely absolute right or wrong answers to complex reflective or ethical questions.

WAFA is interested in the reasoning process.

Strong engagement may demonstrate:

• thoughtful reflection;
• critical thinking;
• consideration of different perspectives;
• ethical reasoning;
• professional judgement;
• identification of uncertainty;
• recognition of professional scope;
• appropriate interdisciplinary referral;
• consideration of human rights;
• consideration of animal welfare;
• awareness of risk;
• appropriate use of evidence; and
• the ability to apply general learning to an assistance-animal context.

A response does not need to agree with what you think WAFA wants to hear.

Where there are reasonable competing positions, explain your reasoning.

Why Complete the Workbook if It Is Not Marked?

Not being separately graded does not make the activities unimportant.

The workbook is intended to become a working bank of professional reasoning that you build throughout the credential.

Ideas developed here may later assist with:

• unit assessments;
• case studies;
• reflective assessments;
• ethical reasoning;
• professional discussions;
• workplace application;
• the Capstone Portfolio;
• Capstone projects;
• professional resource development;
• interdisciplinary conversations;
• your final integrated case work; and
• your Final Professional Integration and Reflection.

You may also find that an issue you initially considered relatively straightforward becomes much more complex after completing later AAOT material.

That is part of the learning process.

Case Studies Based on Real Sector Issues

Many of the assistance-animal case studies and ethical scenarios used within the Foundation Learning Reflection & Application Workbook have been informed by genuine enquiries, situations and dilemmas encountered or received by the Working Animals Federation of Australia.

Identifying details are removed, altered, combined or otherwise de-identified as appropriate to protect privacy.

Some scenarios may also combine features from more than one matter or be modified for educational purposes.

The purpose is not to reproduce an individual person’s case.

The purpose is to expose participants to the types of complexity that can arise in real assistance-animal practice.

These may involve competing:

• rights;
• responsibilities;
• professional obligations;
• welfare considerations;
• risks;
• client preferences;
• family perspectives;
• organisational requirements;
• legislative considerations; and
• interdisciplinary opinions.

Real professional situations do not always arrive with one obvious correct answer.

Ethical Reasoning Throughout the Workbook

Ethical decision-making is an ongoing part of professional assistance-animal practice.

A difficult case may require consideration of:

• the person’s rights;
• autonomy;
• informed decision-making;
• dignity;
• occupational goals;
• disability-related needs;
• cultural considerations;
• trauma;
• safeguarding;
• privacy;
• professional obligations;
• risk;
• applicable legislation;
• animal welfare;
• the interests of other people;
• environmental factors; and
• the limits of your own professional competence.

Participants are encouraged to draw upon:

• their external foundation learning;
• Occupational Therapy knowledge;
• AAOT learning;
• current legislation;
• professional standards;
• relevant evidence;
• professional experience;
• consultation with other disciplines; and
• appropriate ethical frameworks

when working through these activities.

The objective is not simply to decide:

What would I do?

It is to be able to explain:

Why would I do it?

What have I considered?

Whose interests or perspectives are involved?

What evidence or obligations inform my reasoning?

What are the potential consequences?

What remains uncertain?

Is this within my scope?

Who else should be involved?

When You Encounter an Ethical Dilemma in Practice

The scenarios in this workbook are educational, but similar dilemmas may arise in real professional practice.

Credential holders should not feel that holding AAOT means they must resolve every complex issue independently.

Where appropriate, seek:

• professional supervision;
• another Occupational Therapist;
• veterinary advice;
• animal-behaviour or training expertise;
• medical or allied-health input;
• safeguarding advice;
• legal advice;
• regulatory guidance;
• organisational governance;
• specialist consultation;
• WAFA guidance; or
• another appropriately qualified professional.

Where an ethical dilemma extends beyond assistance-animal practice or would benefit from broader structured ethical consideration, practitioners may also wish to access Ethi-call, the confidential ethics counselling service provided by The Ethics Centre.

Ethi-call assists people to work through difficult ethical decisions using a structured ethical decision-making process rather than simply telling the caller what decision to make.

Further information is available from The Ethics Centre’s Ethi-call service.

Seeking consultation when a matter exceeds your own knowledge or would benefit from another perspective is not a professional failure.

It is often evidence of appropriate professional judgement.

Evidence of Engagement

WAFA does not ordinarily require participants to submit certificates or completion records for the non-nationally recognised foundation resources listed in this section.

Instead, engagement is principally demonstrated through the participant’s ability to:

• reflect upon the learning;
• discuss relevant concepts;
• apply those concepts to assistance-animal situations;
• identify relevant considerations;
• recognise limitations;
• reason through complex scenarios; and
• integrate the learning into later AAOT work.

The accompanying workbook should therefore be approached thoughtfully.

It is not intended as a box-ticking exercise.

Equivalent Prior Learning

If you have already completed substantial learning in one of these areas, you do not necessarily need to repeat introductory training.

For example, you may already have completed significant professional education relating to:

• trauma-informed practice;
• safeguarding;
• human rights;
• neurodivergence;
• cultural safety;
• supported decision-making; or
• another listed foundation area.

Where you believe your previous learning is sufficiently equivalent, proceed to the relevant section of the Foundation Learning Reflection & Application Workbook.

If you can confidently understand and apply the concepts to assistance-animal practice, your prior learning may be sufficient.

If the questions expose gaps or uncertainty, that is useful information.

You can then complete or revisit the recommended resource.

The principle is:

Do not repeat learning unnecessarily — but do not assume familiarity is the same as competence.

Completion Before Graduation

Participants are responsible for engaging with the required foundation learning and completing the associated reflective and application activities by the stage specified by WAFA and before graduation.

Because the workbook is intended to develop alongside you, you do not need to complete every response immediately upon enrolment.

You may:

Complete → Revisit → Expand → Reconsider → Apply

throughout AAOT.

WAFA may review the workbook, or relevant parts of it, where required to confirm engagement with the foundation learning or where it forms supporting evidence within another AAOT activity.

Its principal purpose, however, remains learning, reflection and professional application rather than additional assessment burden.

Continuing Learning After Graduation

The external foundation learning resources do not currently have a universal formal renewal period unless WAFA, the external provider, legislation, professional regulation or another applicable requirement specifies otherwise.

Nevertheless, knowledge in these areas should not be regarded as permanently complete.

Human-rights frameworks develop.

Legislation changes.

Professional guidance changes.

Language and understanding around disability evolve.

Safeguarding practices develop.

Evidence changes.

Community expectations change.

Credential holders are therefore encouraged to periodically revisit relevant foundation subjects and undertake updated professional development where appropriate.

The objective is not simply to be able to say:

I completed a course once.

The objective is to continue being able to practise in a way that is:

safe, ethical, evidence-informed, rights-respecting, culturally responsive, professionally defensible and attentive to the welfare of both people and animals.

Download Your Foundation Learning Reflection & Application Workbook

The document below contains the reflective questions, professional prompts, scenarios and assistance-animal case studies associated with the foundation learning in this section.

Please download and save your own copy before beginning.

You may start completing it as you undertake the foundation learning and return to it throughout the AAOT Credential as your knowledge and professional reasoning develop.

Foundation Learning Reflection & Application Workbook – PART 2

AAOT Foundation Learning Workbook Part 2

Keep the workbook accessible throughout AAOT.

You are likely to return to it more than once.