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.
October 2026
Kickin’ It with Kimberly: Ableism Hurts. It’s Time to Listen.
Content warning: Discussion of suicide, mental health, bullying, and discrimination.
The news of RJ Mitte’s death by suicide is heartbreaking.
RJ, best known for his role in Breaking Bad, had cerebral palsy and spent his career challenging stereotypes, speaking out against bullying, and advocating for disability rights.
RJ also spoke openly about the barriers he faced in Hollywood. Even after the success of Breaking Bad, he struggled to find consistent acting opportunities. He challenged an industry that too often limits disabled actors to disability-specific roles or overlooks them altogether.
Think about that. Someone with his talent, experience, and national recognition was still fighting for opportunities.
And this isn’t just a Hollywood problem. Disabled people face these same attitudes in workplaces and communities across the country. Being qualified, talented, and experienced doesn’t protect someone from ableism.
His mother recently shared that she had encouraged him to seek therapy. That really struck me.
Because finding a therapist who actually understands disability and ableism can be incredibly difficult. I’ll speak from experience. I’ve never found a therapist who didn’t bring some level of ableism into our conversations. I don’t need a therapist treating my disability like a tragedy, telling me how much I’ve overcome, or suggesting I go for a run when I physically cannot run. Yes, that actually happened. And I certainly don’t need someone assuming every frustration or emotion in my life stems from my disability. I need someone who understands that sometimes the problem isn’t my disability.
There’s a difference between struggling with disability-related experiences and struggling because society constantly creates barriers for you.
Too many mental health professionals don’t understand that difference.
I didn’t know RJ personally, and I won’t speculate about what led to his death. Suicide is complex. But his mother’s comments made me think about how many disabled people struggle to find mental health care that actually understands their lives.
We cannot keep telling disabled people to seek therapy without addressing the ableism that exists within mental health care itself.
Ableism Has Real Consequences
Disabled people have been talking about the harm of ableism for decades. Bullying, discrimination, exclusion, low expectations, inaccessible services, poverty, institutionalization, and constantly fighting for basic rights take a toll.
Imagine spending your entire life explaining your disability, justifying your needs, fighting for accommodations, and proving you deserve the same opportunities as everyone else.
Then, when you express frustration, someone tells you to be positive or focus on everything you’ve overcome. That’s not support. That’s dismissing the discrimination we’re experiencing.
And here’s what makes this even more frustrating: National research is confirming what disabled people have been telling society for generations.
A 2026 study published in Rehabilitation Psychology examined more than 5,100 U.S. adults with physical disabilities. Researchers found that greater experiences of disability discrimination were associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety, including symptoms and clinical diagnoses.
Another study of 995 disabled adults found that ableist microaggressions were associated with increased depression, anxiety, and stress. Those associations were even stronger among people with less visible disabilities.
And this isn’t just about individual attitudes.
A 2025 study examining structural ableism found that inequalities in income, health insurance, transportation, and accessible housing were associated with poorer health outcomes among disabled people.
Think about what that means. Ableism isn’t limited to someone making an offensive comment. It’s also the systems that prevent people from getting health care, finding employment, accessing transportation, or living independently.
The Urban Institute found that 40% of disabled adults ages 18–64 reported unfair treatment in health care, employment, or public benefits settings in 2022, compared with 18% of nondisabled adults. The measure included unfair treatment attributed to disability or other personal characteristics.
These aren’t just hurt feelings. Discrimination is associated with psychological harm and can interfere with the services people need.
While these studies cannot establish that ableism alone causes mental health conditions, they provide substantial evidence that discrimination and systemic barriers matter.
So when disabled people tell you that discrimination is affecting our mental health, believe us.
The Suicide Statistics Should Concern Everyone
The broader mental health disparities are alarming.
CDC research has found that adults with disabilities are two to three times more likely to report suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts than nondisabled adults. They’re also two to four times more likely to report making a suicide plan.
Our children are facing serious risks, too.
A Wisconsin study found that adolescents with disabilities were three to nine times more likely to report attempting suicide than their nondisabled peers, depending on disability category. While this wasn’t a national study, the findings deserve attention.
And here in South Carolina, the disparities are especially concerning.
A CDC analysis of 2018 data found that 39.2% of disabled adults in South Carolina reported frequent mental distress. Nationally, the figure was 32.9% among disabled adults, compared with 7.2% of nondisabled adults.
We also need to remember that mental illness itself can be a disability. People with psychiatric disabilities are part of our disability community and deserve the same rights, independence, dignity, and choices as everyone else.
Having a disability doesn’t automatically mean someone has poor mental health. But discrimination, isolation, inaccessible services, and other barriers can affect psychological well-being.
What We Aren’t Measuring Should Alarm Us, Too
In 2024, 48,824 Americans died by suicide.
Yet we still don’t have comprehensive national data telling us how many of those people were disabled.
Think about that.
We know disabled people face substantially higher risks of suicidal thoughts and behaviors, but we aren’t adequately tracking disability among people who die by suicide.
How are we supposed to develop effective prevention strategies when we’re not collecting the information needed to understand who is most at risk? And how can we address the potential impact of ableism if we aren’t consistently examining discrimination, bullying, institutionalization, poverty, and inaccessible mental health care?
We need better research across physical, sensory, intellectual, developmental, cognitive, and psychiatric disabilities. And disabled people must be involved in deciding what questions researchers ask and what solutions are developed.
How can we prevent disparities we aren’t adequately measuring?
We’ve Been Telling You This for Decades
This is what frustrates me the most.
Disabled people have spent generations explaining the consequences of ableism. Yet we’re still dismissed as angry, difficult, overly sensitive, or asking for too much.
People celebrate our resilience while ignoring what we’re asking them to change. They praise us for overcoming barriers instead of questioning why those barriers exist in the first place. And when tragedy happens, suddenly everyone wants to talk about mental health.
But where was that concern when disabled students were being bullied? When people were being unnecessarily institutionalized? When disabled workers were being excluded? When people were fighting just to access their communities?
Mental health doesn’t exist separately from civil rights, employment, education, economic security, or community inclusion.
We cannot keep placing the responsibility on disabled people to become more resilient instead of making society less discriminatory.
Mental Health Care Must Change
I absolutely believe in therapy and mental health support. There are professionals doing important work, and seeking help should always be encouraged.
But mental health professionals need to understand disability culture, disability rights, the Independent Living Philosophy, and how ableism affects mental health.
They need to recognize that needing accommodations doesn’t mean someone lacks independence. And frustration with discrimination isn’t necessarily an attitude problem.
We also need disabled professionals and disability-led organizations involved in developing mental health services, training, research, and suicide prevention strategies. Organizations like Able South Carolina have decades of experience addressing the barriers disabled people face. That expertise belongs in these conversations. Nothing about us without us applies to mental health care, too.
Therapy can help someone cope with discrimination. But therapy should never be a substitute for eliminating discrimination.
Both matter.
Listen While We’re Still Here
I didn’t know RJ, and I won’t pretend to know what led to his death. But I know he spent years using his voice to challenge stereotypes and advocate for disabled people.
And I know our community has been raising these concerns long before this tragedy. We shouldn’t have to educate mental health professionals about basic disability rights while seeking their help. We shouldn’t have to keep proving that discrimination harms us. And we shouldn’t have to wait until another tragedy for people to listen.
Listen to disabled people while we’re here. Believe us when we describe discrimination. Include us in developing solutions. We deserve accessible, disability-affirming mental health care. We deserve independence, opportunities, choices, and belonging without constantly having to fight for them.
And we deserve a society that stops creating unnecessary barriers and then expecting us to be resilient enough to overcome them.
Disability is not the problem. Ableism is. And it’s long past time we started treating it with the seriousness it deserves.
Need support? Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org for crisis support. ASL videophone, relay services, and online chat are available. If you encounter accessibility barriers, ask about another communication option or seek help from a trusted person or provider.
Crisis services must be accessible to people with all types of disabilities. Access means more than being able to make a call. It means being heard, understood, and respected.
Kimberly Tissot, Able SC CEO
References and Further Reading
Ableism, discrimination, and mental health
- Disability Discrimination, Disability Permanence, and Mental Health Among U.S. Adults (2026). Rehabilitation Psychology. National study examining disability discrimination, depression, and anxiety among more than 5,100 adults with physical disabilities.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41411028/ - Ableist Microaggressions and Psychological Distress Among Adults With Disabilities (2024 online publication). Rehabilitation Psychology. Study of 995 disabled adults examining depression, anxiety, stress, and disability visibility.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39207425/ - Structural Ableism, Health, and Functioning Among People With Disabilities (2025). Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Research examining structural inequalities and health outcomes among disabled adults.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00221465251379456 - Urban Institute (2023). Four in Ten Adults with Disabilities Experienced Unfair Treatment in Health Care Settings, at Work, or When Applying for Public Benefits in 2022.
https://www.urban.org/research/publication/four-ten-adults-disabilities-experienced-unfair-treatment-health-care-settings - Disability Discrimination and Well-Being (2020). Longitudinal research on discrimination, psychological distress, and mental functioning.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7069317/
Suicide, disability, and mental health disparities
- CDC (2020). Frequent Mental Distress Among Adults, by Disability Status, Disability Type, and Selected Characteristics. National and South Carolina data from 2018.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6936a2.htm - CDC. Health Disparities in Suicide. Research on suicide-related disparities and gaps in disability-specific data.
https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/disparities/ - CDC. Suicide Data and Statistics. National suicide mortality data.
https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/data/ - Moses (2018). Suicide Attempts Among Adolescents With Self-Reported Disabilities. Research examining suicide attempts among Wisconsin adolescents.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29030735/ - CDC (2022). Health Needs Among Children With Developmental Disabilities. Research on health needs and mental health service utilization.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7112a3.htm
Psychiatric disability and civil rights
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Mental Health Conditions and the ADA. Guidance on psychiatric disabilities and protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
https://www.eeoc.gov/mental-health-conditions-resources-job-seekers-employees-and-employers
RJ Mitte, employment barriers, and disability advocacy
- PEOPLE (2026). RJ Mitte’s Mom Recalls Morning of His Death. Reporting on his mother’s comments about encouraging therapy.
https://people.com/rj-mitte-mom-recalls-morning-of-his-death-12172728 - PEOPLE (2026). RJ Mitte’s Friend Remembers Actor’s Strength Amid Struggle. Reporting on employment and financial challenges.
https://people.com/rj-mitte-friend-remembers-actor-strength-amid-struggle-exclusive-12172022 - International Paralympic Committee. RJ Mitte Says Hollywood Can Learn from the Paralympics. Discussion of employment opportunities and representation for disabled actors.
https://www.paralympic.org/feature/ipc-podcast-rj-mitte-says-hollywood-can-learn-paralympics
Crisis support and accessibility
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Crisis support and accessible communication options.
https://988lifeline.org/