Blindness Prevention in Mali:Are Improvements in Sight?

Abstract

International public health policy for the prevention of disability is premised on the homogenizing stance that there is a universal, static conceptualization and experience of disability. A review of key debates in disability studies literature illustrates the extent to which subject formations, including the notion of the Disabled person, are shaped by social, cultural, political, and historical contexts. Research on blindness prevention in Mali is then presented as a case study of the lack of fit between WHO and local definitions of disability. In addition to engaging with disability studies scholarship, this article is also a response to the call made by medical anthropologists to think critically about the relationship between poverty and health inequalities.