The purpose of the study is to investigate the perception of the professional roles and functions as perceived by occupational therapists. The disparity between real and expected situations were analyzed and reported. The results of the study can provide valuable information to improve the quality of services and as a basis to guide the direction of curriculum design in professional education. The study was carried out using mail survey method. The researchers randomly selected 200 people from the membership listing of the Taiwan Occupational therapy Association. We mailed out the questionnaires and received 67 questionnaires in 2 months (return rate as 33.5%). Their average age is 33.6 (SD=6.5). Forty-nine people (73.1%) were females. Among respondents, 37.3% of them have work duration between 5 and 10 years; 35.8% of them live in the northern part of Taiwan. The results show that occupational therapists have greater expectation than real situation for the profession. Disparities of professional functions between expectation and reality included ”Barrier-free environment design”, ”vocational placement”, and ”assisted device choice”. Therapists expected to provide services on the following areas: ”case management” and ”home and community environment modification”. The following services need to be implemented in the future: ”Occupational rehabilitation and transition”, ”environmental modification and adaptation”, ”mental health counseling”. Therapists in mental health area expected to increase knowledge of ”medication management and related knowledge”. The results of the study demonstrated that more emphasis can be placed on issues of ”community integration” and ”environmental modification”, which can be incorporated into the educational contents. It is suggested that the professional courses (including continuing education) should be expanded. More research needs to be conducted to examine the efficacy of profession.