For this assignment I joined two professional list serves offered to the members of the American Occupational Therapy Association. Because I teach the Physical Disabilities class for the Occupational Therapy Assistant Program at Baltimore County Community College, I joined the Physical Disability and Occupational Therapy Assistant List Serves.

Physical Disabilities List-Serv: This is a members only area, located on the website of the American Occupational Therapy Association. (http://www.aota.org/). Members are not allowed to advertise or solicit. It is a forum where members who are located anywhere in the United States may post questions or concerns related to the topic area of physical disabilities. During the period of time that I monitored this website members posted questions regarding therapeutic interventions, electrical modalities, questions regarding efficacy of splinting, input regarding specific assessments for cognitive and/or visual perceptual deficits and changes in licensing laws for occupational therapists. On this list serve you are able to see the number of posts for each topic area. Posts include, the question and responses. You can also view the number of times a topic area was read. While it is possible that one person could open a question or response repeatedly, it still gives you an idea of the interest in a given topic by the number of views.

Occupational Therapy Assistant List Serv: This list serv is also for members of the American Occupational Therapy Association. (http://www.aota.org/). Members that are either Occupational Therapy Assistants or have an interest in the assistant level professional visit this list serv. I am not an assistant but since I teach for this level professional it is important for me to remain aware of the current issues that they are discussing and dealing with. This is a very active list serv. There are approximately 5-7 posts per day. Topics discussed included employment settings, supervision requirements, licensing laws and salary ranges. This is a very active group because they often practice with limited exposure to other OT assistants. This site provides a safe forum to compare notes regarding human resource issues as well as ensuring that they are practicing within their scope.