Christopher Ulmer is an American disability-rights advocate, former special education teacher, YouTuber, and founder of the non-profit Special Books by Special Kids.
| Chris Ulmer | ||||||||||
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 Ulmer in 2022 | ||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||
| Born | Christopher Ulmer 4 March 1989 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | |||||||||
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| Website | https://sbsk.org/ | |||||||||
| YouTube information | ||||||||||
| Years active | 2016–present | |||||||||
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| Subscribers | 3.3 million | |||||||||
| Total views | 791 million | |||||||||
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Last updated: 21 April 2023 | ||||||||||
Early life and education
editUlmer was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended Upper Moreland High School. He attended Pennsylvania State University, where he majored in media effects. He received a master's degree in special education from the University of the Cumberlands in Kentucky, where he was a student teacher.[1]
Career
editAfter graduation, he moved to Jacksonville, Florida. He coached soccer at a university and was offered a free degree in special education. He began teaching special education to students aged 7 to 10.[1] As a special education teacher, he taught students with autism, agenesis of the corpus callosum and traumatic brain injury.[2]
With permission from his students’ parents, in the classroom Ulmer "began to film interviews with his students and post them on social media,"[3] which attracted an online presence. After 12 months, Special Books by Special Kids "evolved into an acceptance movement that’s reached over one billion people."[4]
Ulmer began his online presence through Facebook in 2016 and a year later reached 1.2 million followers.[1] In 2017, Ulmer created the YouTube channel Special Books by Special Kids (commonly abbreviated as SBSK). On November 19, 2018, the Special Books by Special Kids YouTube channel reached 1 million subscribers.[5]
He crisscrossed the country interviewing disabled children to give them, as ABC News put it, "an opportunity to be seen and accepted." As a result, Ulmer has created more than 500 videos of those interviews.[6] A partial transcript, as an example of an interview of a child by Ulmer, is included in the book Flying Starts for Unique Children[7] by author and special-needs teacher Adele Devine.
Awards and nominations
edit| Year | Nominated | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | National Organization for Rare Disorders | Rare Impact Award | Won |
| 2018 | Streamys Purpose Awards | Nonprofit or NGO Award | Won |
References
edit- ^ a b c "Former special education teacher empowers kids to talk in their own words". WGRZ. August 1, 2017.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Wong, Kathleen (December 10, 2015). "Florida Teacher Chris Ulmer Begins Each Day Complimenting Students". mic.com.
- ^ Gelbart, Hannah (March 31, 2017). "Meet the former teacher giving a voice to disabled children". British Broadcasting Company. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
- ^ Ulmer, Christopher (November 2, 2017). "Special Books by Special Kids". Facebook. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
- ^ "specialbooksbyspecialkids Monthly YouTube Statistics". Social Blade. November 19, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
- ^ "Florida teacher is teaching acceptance of all people, one video at a time". ABC News. 29 April 2017.
- ^ Devine, Adele (18 August 2016). Flying Starts for Unique Children: Top Tips for Supporting Children with SEN or Autism When They Start School. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. ISBN 9781784502416 – via Google Books. Pg. 127.