The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: Disability Informed Reading Guide

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: Disability Informed Reading Guide PDF

Many commonly taught books and stories that feature disabled characters and/or themes related to disability include portrayals that can be confusing, stereotyped, or unintentionally harmful. Our disability informed reading guides help educators navigate these texts with care. These resources are not endorsements of the books themselves, but tools to support thoughtful conversations, offer important context, and encourage more inclusive, accurate discussions about disability. Like all of our resources, they’re designed to help classrooms be places where all students feel respected and represented.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz features multiple characters (notably, main characters of the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion), who lack a key bodily feature or characteristic, and go on a journey to seek a cure. It has numerous secondary characters whose bodies are different from Dorothy (the child who is the lead character); while she is surprised by the different people she encounters on her adventures through Oz, she repeatedly models kindness and curiosity in her interactions with them.

For older students, connecting this book with the more contemporary story of Wicked (book, musical and movie) may create interesting discussion points, as there is a character who uses a wheelchair in that novel who becomes key villain in both stories, and the theme of discrimination is very prominent.