kids encyclopedia robot

Chris Ulmer facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Special Books by Special Kids
Personal information
Born Christopher Ulmer
(1989-03-04) 4 March 1989 (age 35)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation
Website https://sbsk.org/
YouTube information
Years active 2016–present
Genre
Subscribers 3.3 million
Total views 791 million
Subscriber and view counts updated as of 21 April 2023.

Christopher Ulmer is an American disability-rights advocate, former special education teacher, YouTuber, and founder of the non-profit Special Books by Special Kids.

Early life and education

Ulmer 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.

Career

After 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. As a special education teacher, he taught students with autism, agenesis of the corpus callosum and traumatic brain injury.

With permission from his students’ parents, in the classroom Ulmer "began to film interviews with his students and post them on social media," 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."

Ulmer began his online presence through Facebook in 2016 and a year later reached 1.2 million followers. 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.

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. A partial transcript, as an example of an interview of a child by Ulmer, is included in the book Flying Starts for Unique Children by author and special-needs teacher Adele Devine.

Awards and nominations

Year Nominated Award Result
2018 National Organization for Rare Disorders Rare Impact Award Won
2018 Streamys Purpose Awards Nonprofit or NGO Award Won
kids search engine
Chris Ulmer Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.