Kaitlin Stober promotes disability inclusion and disability rights through art

DHD research specialist Kaitlin Stober created a lighthouse as part of Lighthouses on The Mag Mile — a public art installation of 51 lighthouses presented by The Chicago Lighthouse that celebrates access and inclusion for people with disabilities.

“My lighthouse, entitled ‘Weeds,’ was sponsored by Four Seasons Hotel Chicago. I painted the surface with patches of dandelions growing against a multi-colored brick façade. My work, and the accompanying audio/written commentary, provokes consideration of disability inclusion and disability rights through metaphor. Dandelions, despite similarities to other commercially valued flowers, are widely regarded as weeds. They are often uprooted and discarded, left to grow through the cracks or on the margins of our manicured society. This is comparable to the historical segregation, institutionalization, and marginalization of persons with disabilities, many of whom are still excluded from considerations of mainstream society.”