Abstract

Discursive events such as proverbs construct society’s beliefs, values, and attitudes. Proverbs as verbal expressions of persons with disability are discursive sites to see the cultural location of persons with disability. However, no research has been undertaken in the area to see discursive attitudes concerning the lives of persons with a disability. Thus, the study examines the roles given to persons with disability in proverbs. It investigates the language used to describe persons with disabilities. In addition, it explores how persons with a disability are portrayed in the proverbs. Toward this end, the study uses conceptual lines of critical discourse analysis and the social model. It employs a qualitative approach and textual analysis of thirty purposively selected proverbs that have persons with disability as a subject. An interview with five key informants was conducted to identify the contextual meanings of the said proverbs selected from a book. The study shows that the proverbs used are offensive and dehumanizing. They accentuate impairments and perpetuate the views that persons with disabilities are deficient, naïve, shameless, aggressive, restless, sexually immoral, judgmental, idle talkers, curses, outcasts, incapable, and unfit to work. Likewise, persons with disability were noted as objects of metaphor to illustrate impossibility, inability, limitation, and failure. The study concludes that proverbs carry deep-rooted negative views concerning persons with disability. Thus, media, teachers, authors, associations, and advocacy groups can have cultural insights to rectify the disability-related stigmatizing and discriminatory discourses. Also, curriculum designers, education policymakers, and NGOs should enhance their roles with insights to undermine these negative views. Other researchers can pursue further investigations on the experiences of persons with disability in Tigrai.