Healthcare (Clinical)29-1299.02Specialization

Orthoptists

Diagnose and treat visual system disorders such as binocular vision and eye movement impairments.

$107,990
Median Pay
6-12 years
Training
🟒
AI-Resilient

This is a specialization of

Other Clinical Practitioners

Career Overview Video

AI Impact Assessment

AI Resilience Score

Score 5/6: low AI task exposure, strong human advantage provides strong protection from AI displacement (estimated from legacy data)

🟒AI-Resilient

How we calculated this:

AI Exposure
Low+2

11% of tasks can be accelerated by AI

Job Growth
Stable+1

0% projected (2024-2034)

Human Advantage
Strong+2

EPOCH score: 24/25

Total Score5/6
Methodology: v2.0 - GPTs are GPTs / BLS / EPOCH Additive ScoringUpdated: 2026-01-09

Key Responsibilities

  • Examine patients with problems related to ocular motility, binocular vision, amblyopia, or strabismus.
  • Evaluate, diagnose, or treat disorders of the visual system with an emphasis on binocular vision or abnormal eye movements.
  • Provide instructions to patients or family members concerning diagnoses or treatment plans.
  • Perform diagnostic tests or measurements, such as motor testing, visual acuity testing, lensometry, retinoscopy, and color vision testing.
  • Provide nonsurgical interventions, including corrective lenses, patches, drops, fusion exercises, or stereograms, to treat conditions such as strabismus, heterophoria, and convergence insufficiency.
  • Develop nonsurgical treatment plans for patients with conditions such as strabismus, nystagmus, and other visual disorders.
  • Interpret clinical or diagnostic test results.
  • Develop or use special test and communication techniques to facilitate diagnosis and treatment of children or patients with disabilities.
  • Provide training related to clinical methods or orthoptics to students, resident physicians, or other health professionals.
  • Refer patients to ophthalmic surgeons or other physicians.

Education & Training

Typical Entry Education

Post-baccalaureate certificate

Time to Job Ready

6-12 years

Based on Job Zone 5. For formal education duration only, see education_duration.

Technology Skills

Vision therapy softwareEye tracking systemsEHR/documentation softwareMicrosoft OfficePatient assessment tools

Key Abilities

Oral ComprehensionWritten ComprehensionOral ExpressionWritten ExpressionProblem SensitivityDeductive ReasoningInductive ReasoningSpeech RecognitionSpeech ClarityNear Vision

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Find jobs and training programs for orthoptists- Median salary: $108K/year

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Compensation Details

$62,400
10th Percentile
$107,990
Median
$194,670
90th Percentile

Based on 31,100 employed workers

Also Known As

Certified OrthoptistClinical Orthoptist (CO)Orthoptist

Data from O*NET 30.1 and BLS Occupational Employment Statistics

O*NET Code: 29-1299.02