Messages from our CEO: Kickin’ It with Kimberly
It’s essential to us that we keep you well-informed about current issues and barriers affecting people with disabilities. Our CEO, Kimberly Tissot, recognizes that you are at the heart of our efforts to promote disability rights, justice, and freedoms. Letters will be written to you, our key supporters, about the injustices we uncover and the solutions we can offer as a disability-led organization.
May 2026
Kickin’ It with Kimberly: South Carolina’s Governor Race and the Silence Around Disability
As South Carolina’s governor’s race begins heating up, candidates are talking about roads, taxes, economic development, education, crime, and healthcare. But one issue continues to be almost completely ignored despite impacting hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians every single day: disability. Not a single candidate from any party has meaningfully addressed it. People with disabilities are one of the largest minority groups in our state. We are your neighbors, coworkers, children, veterans, parents, taxpayers, and community members. Yet our lives, safety, independence, and basic human rights rarely make it onto the political agenda.
The consequences of that silence are real, devastating, and in some cases deadly. Recently, horrifying allegations emerged involving a worker at the Pee Dee Regional Center who allegedly failed to intervene while a resident choked to death and was reportedly seen laughing during the incident. According to investigators, there were opportunities to help. There were opportunities to save a life. Instead, a person with a disability died in a system that was supposed to protect him. That alone should have shaken this state to its core.
But where was the outrage from political leaders? Where were the statements from gubernatorial candidates? Where were the calls for investigation, reform, oversight, or accountability? Instead, the news cycle moved on. The headlines faded. People returned to their routines. Politicians stayed silent. And just like so many disability-related tragedies in South Carolina, this will likely disappear without meaningful change unless the public demands otherwise, and that includes all of us. Meanwhile, one family is left grieving, residents who witnessed the incident are left traumatized, and a broken system remains fully intact.
And honestly, it forces us to ask difficult questions about how society values disabled lives. When tragedies involving nondisabled individuals happen, there is often widespread outrage, nonstop coverage, public pressure, and demands for accountability. So why does that same urgency so often disappear when the victim is a person with a disability? Why are these stories so easily forgotten? Disabled people deserve the same public outrage, protection, dignity, and justice as anyone else.
The heartbreaking reality is that this is not an isolated incident. Across South Carolina, people with disabilities and their families are being failed by systems that are underfunded, understaffed, inaccessible, and too often ignored altogether. There have been repeated reports of preventable harm, abuse, neglect, and institutional failures involving disabled South Carolinians. Individuals with disabilities are being neglected by the state just for needing to live. Families are exhausted. Caregivers are burning out. People are deteriorating while waiting for services that either do not exist or are so limited they may as well not exist at all.
South Carolina currently has more than 20,000 people waiting for home and community-based services. Twenty thousand. That means thousands of disabled South Carolinians and their families are sitting in limbo without the support they need to survive in their homes and communities safely. Parents are aging without help. Disabled adults are trapped in hospitals, nursing homes, and other institutions, or unsafe situations, simply because services are unavailable. Some families are even being forced to leave South Carolina entirely in search of support elsewhere.
At the same time this crisis is unfolding, lawmakers continue debating Medicaid reductions instead of addressing the devastating gaps already harming people every single day. These are no longer isolated tragedies. These are policy failures. Every preventable death, every family collapse, every caregiver pushed beyond their limit, and every disabled person forced into institutional care reflects decisions being made or ignored by leadership.
As the governor’s race moves forward, disability can no longer remain an afterthought. Voters should begin asking candidates direct questions about disability rights, Medicaid, home and community-based services, accessibility, employment, education, and closing institutionalizations. Candidates should not wait for the disability community to beg for attention. They should be building disability platforms now, and they should do so by listening directly to disabled people and their families, caregivers, and disability rights advocates who live these realities every single day. (Point of clarity: I said “and,” so please do not leave disabled advocates out of the conversation.)
Every single person in South Carolina is one illness, one accident, one diagnosis, or simply one step into the aging process away from disability becoming part of their life or the life of someone they love. Disability is not an issue that only affects “other people.” A car accident, cancer diagnosis, stroke, dementia, mental health condition, or simply growing older can change a family’s life overnight. This is not a niche issue. This is not a siloed issue. This is a South Carolina issue.
And when South Carolina fails people with disabilities, the impact spreads far beyond the disability community. It strains families, caregivers, healthcare systems, schools, workplaces, emergency rooms, and the economy itself. Yet our state continues making decisions that are not fiscally responsible and are actively destroying lives by underfunding Medicaid’s home and community-based supports while heavily relying on more expensive institutional systems that often produce worse outcomes and strip people of independence and dignity.
Home and community-based services allow people to live, work, raise families, participate in their communities, and maintain autonomy. They stabilize families, reduce hospitalizations and institutionalization, reduce crisis care, and strengthen workforce participation. Supporting disabled people in their communities is not only the morally right thing to do, but it is also fiscally responsible and benefits the entire state.
The question now is simple: what will it take before disability becomes a priority in South Carolina? How many more preventable deaths? How many more families breaking apart? How many more caregivers collapsing under impossible pressure? How many more people forced into institutions because community supports were never funded? South Carolina cannot continue claiming to value family, freedom, faith, and community while ignoring the realities facing disabled people and those who love them.
The disability community is watching this governor’s race closely. We are paying attention to who is willing to speak up, who is willing to listen, and who is willing to act. Because silence is not neutral. Silence is a decision.
So here is my challenge:
Gubernatorial candidates, stop treating disability as an afterthought and develop real, informed disability platforms built alongside disabled people, families, and disability advocates. Learn how these broken systems are impacting South Carolinians every single day, and be willing to publicly address the crises happening in our state. You will be hearing from us with questions.
Lawmakers, stop ignoring disability issues until tragedy strikes. Listen to the disability community, educate yourselves on the realities people are facing, and begin treating disability rights, Medicaid, accessibility, and home and community-based services as priorities, not optional discussions pushed to the sidelines. We bring you keys to unlock the barriers every year—use them.
Individuals across South Carolina (and beyond), including disabled people, families, caregivers, advocates, and allies– pay attention. Research where candidates stand on disability issues before voting. Ask questions. Demand answers. Speak up when disability rights, accessibility, and human dignity are ignored. Because disability is not someone else’s issue. It is part of every community, and real change will only happen when people demand better together.
Dedication:
This Kickin’ it with Kimberly is dedicated to the individuals with disabilities who lost their lives because systems failed to protect them, and to the families left behind carrying unimaginable grief, trauma, and heartbreak. Their lives mattered. They were more than headlines, statistics, or forgotten stories. They were sons, daughters, parents, siblings, friends, and human beings deserving of dignity, safety, support, and justice. We will not stop speaking their names, telling these stories, and demanding accountability. To the families grieving, the communities hurting, and the individuals too often ignored, we see you, we stand with you, and we will continue fighting for justice and systemic change in your honor.
– Kimberly Tissot, President and CEO, Able South Carolina
Join us in our advocacy by supporting our work: AllAble-SC.org.
For nearly 32 years, Able South Carolina has been a critical force for disability rights, belonging, and the right to live on one’s own terms. As a disability-led organization, we don’t just serve our community—we are the disability community. We Are All Able SC! We’re calling on allies, advocates, and community members to generously invest in disability empowerment and justice. Please invest in those most affected and impacted by policy decisions. Visit allable-sc.org today to make a donation.