About the ACS

The Activity Card Sort (ACS) was developed as client-centered and individually applicable assessment within the framework of occupational therapy.

It assesses the individual occupational performance of adults and their participation-level.

Using photo cards the client can select personal activities of his or her daily life. Activity limitations due to the aging or illness can be detected with the help of the ACS. A client can set meaningful personal goals that he or she want to achieve.

The requirement of participation-oriented assessments is high; hitherto capturing participation can be seen as a big challenge. Following the empirical data being engaged in meaningful activities positively affects the quality of life of an individual (cf. Eriksson et al. 2013), whereas other activities of daily living only have limited influence on quality of live and satisfaction of a person (cf. Baum 2004). Meaningful activities and their chances can be recorded via the ACS and can illustrate an individual activity pattern over time.

By virtue of its procedure the ACS offers a relevant and contemporary assessment to express personal and/or client’s needs. The outcome supports occupational therapist in a goal-oriented, transparent and occupation-based approach. They can insert the assessment into their therapeutic process for goal-setting, therapy planning and documentation of changes. The ACS is characterized by high user friendliness and offers security to the user due to its structured procedure.

The time taken to administer the ACS is about 20-30 minutes. Therapists can create a time frame responding to the clients’ needs and capacity.