Empowering Lives Through Occupation: Reflecting on RCOT’s Five Occupational Rights at Bounce OT

On 1 October 2025, the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) published Five occupational rights – principles to enable fulfilled lives when supporting people with learning disabilities.

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Written by Callum MacKinnon

Published on 3 October 2025 12:00 am - 18 minute read

occupational therapy

On 1 October 2025, the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) published Five occupational rights – principles to enable fulfilled lives when supporting people with learning disabilities. It’s a practical framework for families, carers, providers and professionals to recognise good occupational engagement and to know when and how to access specialist OT support. [Five occup...Therapists]

The paper distils practice wisdom, co‑design with people with learning disabilities, and occupational science into five rights that should guide everyday decision‑making: the rights to choose what you do; to have a balance of occupations; to have occupations made accessible; to be free from barriers; and to engage in occupations valued by you and your communities. [Five occup...s when ...]

As an OT and social entrepreneur in Stirling, I’ve found these rights both validating and stretching. They articulate what we strive to do at Bounce OT Stirling CIC—a social enterprise founded in 2017 that combines evidence‑based sensory play and physical activity (including rebound therapy) to promote participation “one bounce at a time.” Below, I reflect on each right and how it shapes our practice.

1) The right to choose what you do

RCOT positions choice as a core safeguard against occupational alienation—the experience of being cut off from the activities that make us feel like ourselves. The framework emphasises supporting informed choice (with observation, scaffolding, and alternatives if a choice is detrimental to health) and keeping a record of what the person values. [Five occup...s when ...]

In our practice: We begin with co‑produced goals driven by the person’s interests—movement, music, bubbles, deep pressure, or just the joy of bouncing. We use visual choice boards and structured play offers to turn preferences into plans, then we document what “lights the person up” to guide progression over time. When a choice carries risk, we use positive risk‑taking (e.g., graded exposure on the trampoline with spotters and mats) so autonomy grows safely, aligning with RCOT’s call to support decision‑making rather than defaulting to restriction. [Five occup...s when ...]

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

2) The right to have a balance of occupations

RCOT reframes “busy” as not the same as “balanced.” People need a variety—self‑care, learning, leisure, rest, productivity—shaped to physical and mental health needs, not just what’s convenient for services. [Five occup...s when ...]

In our practice: We purposefully blend play, regulation, and life‑skills within and beyond the therapy room. Families access our “Family Fun” sessions—exclusive use of our autism‑friendly, wheelchair‑accessible space for up to an hour—to prioritise joy, connection, and rest for caregivers. Others opt for 1:1 sessions with a Therapeutic Play Leader to target specific goals. Critically, people often move fluidly between universal and targeted support across months and years, building the sustainable rhythms that occupational balance demands.

3) The right for occupations to be made accessible

The paper is unequivocal: tasks, environments, and supports must be adapted—communication, sensory, physical, and mental health needs included. Consistency in how a person is supported helps learning “stick,” and carers should be able to seek training and expert input to tailor occupations. [Five occup...s when ...]

In our practice: Accessibility is designed in. From our sensory‑friendly setup and wheelchair access to clear visual structure for sessions, we grade demands and modify equipment (e.g., side‑supports, different bed surfaces, weighted items). We share “just‑right challenge” plans with families—how many bounces, when to pause, what cues to use—so the same patterns can be repeated at home or school, mirroring RCOT’s emphasis on consistent support and skills teaching.

What’s next: We’re about to launch a new funded project* to upskill 100 family carers in official 1-day Rebound Therapy training—completely free of charge. This initiative will give families the confidence and competence to deliver safe, structured sessions at home or in community settings, ensuring that the benefits of therapy don’t stop when the session ends. It’s a direct response to RCOT’s call for accessible occupations and consistent support, and it reflects our belief that empowering carers is one of the most sustainable ways to uphold occupational rights.

*funding recieved from The National Lottery Community Fund Scotland

4) The right to be free from barriers to occupations

RCOT challenges restrictive environments and calls for positive risk‑taking, competent supporters, and sensory‑social setups that enable participation. Where poor support blocks engagement, it should be robustly challenged. [Five occup...s when ...]

In our practice: We see barriers as design problems, not personal deficits. That might mean adjusting lighting and sound, scheduling for arousal and energy, or giving people exclusive, predictable access to our space to remove social anxiety and queuing stress. Beyond our walls, we train school staff across the Central Belt (and increasingly further afield) to adapt PE, movement breaks, and sensory circuits—building capacity in the systems that surround the person, in line with RCOT’s “everyone’s responsibility” message.

5) The right to occupations valued by you and your communities

The fifth right pushes beyond “activities” into belonging and valued roles—being a teammate, sibling, classmate, volunteer, or worker—so people aren’t limited to segregated settings or “token” offers. RCOT links this to tackling occupational apartheid and insists on opportunities for inclusion across the lifespan. [Five occup...s when ...]

In our practice: We measure success not only by what someone can do on a mat, but by where that doing goes: joining family games, handling crowds at a leisure centre, or staying for the full class assembly. Our planning conversations with families ask, “What valued role is this skill unlocking?” Then we scaffold the steps, partners, and places that make those roles real. This values‑based lens is equally important in adult services; RCOT’s neurodiversity resources highlight OT’s role in routines, self‑care, executive function, employment and education—all routes to roles that matter to the person. [Adult neur...ity - RCOT]

How RCOT’s framework stretches us (in the best way)

RCOT’s document isn’t a checklist—it’s a commitment. It also names the structural issues we still face: institutional practices, low expectations, and ongoing occupational deprivation reported across services. That matters because it reminds us why rights language is needed in the first place. [Five occup...s when ...]

At Bounce OT, the framework sharpens three priorities:

Codifying choice and voice
We already record what people enjoy and tolerate, but RCOT challenges us to keep an explicit, evolving record of what the person values—a living document that travels across home, school, and community supports.
Making the balance visible
It’s easy for services to drift toward what fits the timetable rather than what balances the person’s needs. We’re enhancing our reviews to map participation across self‑care, leisure, learning, rest, and productivity—asking, “Where is the light, and where is the load?”
Scaling accessibility through others
RCOT is clear that meeting occupational rights is everyone’s responsibility, with OTs offering specialist input where complexity demands it. We’re doubling down on training and coaching so teachers, support workers, and families can adapt occupations confidently.

Practical changes we’re making (next 6–12 months)

Rights‑in‑Practice prompts in every assessment and review
We’re embedding five short questions—one for each right—into our documentation and debriefs so rights aren’t abstract; they’re action checks at the point of care. (Based on RCOT’s five‑rights framework and application guidance.) [Five occup...s when ...]
Easy‑read resources for families and young people
We’ll share RCOT’s accessible “Your five occupational rights” booklet at first contact and revisit it during reviews, inviting families to highlight the rights they want to focus on next.
Positive risk‑taking pathways
We’re creating graded progression charts (e.g., “from feet on floor to dynamic bouncing with turns”) with clear safety measures and when to pause cues—so autonomy grows within a safe envelope, reflecting RCOT’s emphasis on positive risk‑taking and competence.
Universal → Targeted → Specialist flow
We’ll formalise how people move between “Family Fun” (universal) and 1:1 (targeted) sessions over time, depending on goals and life events—keeping access flexible and long‑view, as many families already experience.
Community role‑mapping
For each person, we’ll co‑map valued roles (e.g., “teammate in after‑school club,” “confident public transport user”) and align our session targets to those roles, echoing RCOT’s focus on occupations valued by the person and community.

What this means for partners and commissioners

RCOT’s rights offer a shared language for quality and equity. Commissioners can ask: How are these rights evidenced in plans and outcomes? How are services building capacity across systems, not just delivering sessions? The Bounce OT model—activity‑based, accessible spaces, flexible dosing across time, and workforce development for schools and carers—was built to answer those questions locally in Stirling and across the Central Belt, with training now reaching partners further afield.

For educators and providers, the invitation is to design enabling environments (sensory, social, temporal) and to treat movement and play as serious tools for cognition, communication, regulation, and participation—because they are. When we do, we don’t just reduce barriers; we widen the doorway into roles that matter.

Closing reflection

RCOT’s Five Occupational Rights don’t add to our workload; they clarify our why and fine‑tune our how. They remind us that occupation is more than activity—it’s identity, belonging, and the chance to contribute. In Stirling, we’ll keep promOTing participation one bounce at a time, and we’ll keep measuring success not only in minutes on the trampoline, but in lives lived more fully—at home, in school, at work, and out in the community.