What Is A CATIS?

What Is a CATIS, Exactly?

A CATIS (Certified Assistive Technology Instructional Specialist for Individuals with Visual Impairments) is a credentialed professional trained to assess, configure, and teach assistive technology to people who are blind or have low vision. The designation is not a generic "assistive technology" title borrowed from another field - it is a specific, standalone credential built around the needs of individuals with visual impairments, from screen readers and magnification software to braille displays and adaptive mobile devices.

If you've landed here searching for background before diving into the details of the exam itself, this overview is meant to sit alongside our more tactical resources like the CATIS Certification overview and the What Is CATIS? explainer, which cover adjacent angles on the same credential.

Who Issues the CATIS Credential

CATIS is issued by the Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals (ACVREP). Candidates register for both eligibility review and the examination through ACVREP in coordination with Webassessor, the testing platform ACVREP uses to schedule and deliver the exam. ACVREP also coordinates approved proctoring arrangements and any examination accommodations a candidate may need.

Because ACVREP owns the entire credentialing pipeline - eligibility review, examination delivery, initial certification, and recertification - every fee, deadline, and requirement you'll encounter traces back to ACVREP's published standards rather than a third-party training vendor.

What a CATIS Does - and Who Hires Them

A CATIS professional typically works with students or clients who are blind or visually impaired to determine which assistive technology tools fit their needs, then teaches them to use those tools effectively in school, work, or daily life. This work sits at the intersection of vision rehabilitation, assistive technology, and instructional design.

Employers who look for the credential include school districts with vision programs, state and private vision rehabilitation agencies, and organizations serving people with visual impairments across the lifespan - from students in K-12 settings to adults transitioning back into independent living or employment after vision loss. If you're weighing whether pursuing the credential makes sense for your career path, our CATIS Jobs guide and Is the CATIS Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 both dig into that decision in more depth.

The Four CATIS Exam Domains

The current official Body of Knowledge organizes the CATIS exam around four domains. Understanding what each domain actually tests - not just its name - is the single most important step before you start studying in earnest.

For a full breakdown of what falls under each domain, along with sample question framing, see the CATIS Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 4 Content Areas. If you're specifically trying to gauge difficulty before committing to a study timeline, the How Hard Is the CATIS Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026 article walks through what makes each domain challenging in practice.

Eligibility Pathways

ACVREP offers three eligibility pathways to sit for the CATIS exam, so candidates coming from different educational and professional backgrounds all have a route in:

1. University preparation pathway - completion of university coursework specifically in assistive technology for blindness and visual impairment.
2. Education, technical-training, and documented-experience pathway - a combination route where Category 2 requirements shift depending on the candidate's educational background.
3. Comprehensive postsecondary technical program pathway - completion of a technical program meeting ACVREP's requirements, under Category 3, which must run at least one year and include 1,500 direct-work-experience hours within the most recent three years. The supervised internship (below) may count toward those 1,500 hours.

Every pathway also requires submitting pathway-specific education records, clinical-competency documentation, core-domain checklists, and employment verification as part of the application. Because these requirements are detailed and easy to misread, we cover them line by line in CATIS Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.

The Supervised Internship Requirement

Regardless of which eligibility pathway a candidate uses, all three categories require a 350-hour CATIS-supervised internship, of which at least 280 hours must be direct service. This internship is where theoretical knowledge of the four domains turns into demonstrated, supervised practice.

A few mechanics worth flagging:

• If a candidate wants to complete the internship offsite (away from direct in-person supervision), that arrangement requires ACVREP approval before the internship begins - not after the fact.
• For Category 3 candidates, internship hours may count toward the broader 1,500-hour direct-work-experience requirement, which can streamline the pathway if planned early.

Registration, Fees, and Scheduling

Registration for both eligibility review and the examination itself happens through ACVREP in coordination with Webassessor. The initial cost structure breaks down as follows:

Note that the $490 examination fee already includes one retake, so a first-attempt miss doesn't necessarily require paying the full exam fee again. For a complete cost picture - including what optional preparation materials typically add - see CATIS Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

On scheduling: candidates must observe a 30-calendar-day waiting period before sitting for the exam, and rescheduling resets that waiting period from the new date. This makes early, deliberate scheduling important rather than something to handle last-minute. Our CATIS Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling guide walks through how to plan around that window.

ACVREP also sells a separate, optional official practice examination for $65, containing 100 questions with a 3-hour time limit. It's worth being precise here: those numbers describe the practice product, not the certification exam itself - the two are not the same specification.

Recertification and Ongoing Points

CATIS certification runs on a 2-year renewal cycle. To renew, certificants need:

• 40 total recertification points within the cycle
• At least 10 of those points from assistive-technology-specific continuing education
• A $158 renewal fee

Points convert predictably: one continuing-education contact hour equals 1 point, and one CEU equals 10 points. That means a single well-structured CEU-bearing course can cover a large share of the 40-point requirement, though the 10-point assistive-technology-specific minimum still needs to be satisfied with directly relevant coursework, not general professional development.

Mapping Your Prep to the Domains

Generic study advice - spaced repetition, timed practice, breaking sessions into blocks - only helps if it's anchored to the actual CATIS domain structure. A simple way to sequence preparation:

This sequencing puts the most technically dense domain (Configuration) early, while momentum and motivation are highest, and saves Exploration - often the most conceptual, least rote-memorization domain - for last. For a more detailed week-by-week plan with practice-question targets, see the CATIS Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. And if you want a fast reference to keep nearby during review sessions, the CATIS Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts condenses the domains into a single page.

Practicing under realistic timed conditions matters just as much as content review. You can run full-length timed sets on our CATIS practice test platform to get comfortable with pacing before exam day, and revisit the practice test homepage periodically to track which domains still need work.

Frequently Asked Questions

For a deeper look at the credential's foundational identity and how it's discussed across related terms, see What Is A CATIS?, What Does CATIS Mean?, and What Is CATIS Certification?, or explore structured training options in CATIS Training.