In Tanzania, I’d say the moral model and medical model are more prevalent. For example, through my conversations with the National Eye Program Coordinator, I was told that there is a stigma attached to children wearing eyeglasses, because it makes them look more smarter or arrogant. And in these instances, the parents actually break the glasses that are given to the child.

The medical model is also prevalent; disability is seen as a defect in which you must seek treatment/therapy from a clinical institution (i.e. hospital). This is also the model that I basically grew up with; where the person is seen with the impairment and the person has to be fixed, rather than the disability being part of their identity.

While Tanzanian policies are trying to more towards a more social model of disability, implementation has not reached optimal levels and there is still some work to be done.