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 | |
|---|---|
 Ulmer in 2022 | |
| Born | Christopher Ulmer 4 March 1989 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Occupations |
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| Partner | Alyssa Porter |
| YouTube information | |
| Channel | |
| Years active | March 19, 2015 |
| Genre | |
| Subscribers | 3.7 million |
| Views | 966 million |
| Last updated: 27 March 2026 | |
| Website | https://sbsk.org/ |
Early life and education
editChristopher Ulmer was born on March 4, 1989,[citation needed] a native of Northeast Philadelphia, grew up in the Rhawnhurst neighborhood before moving to Willow Grove, where most of his family still resides.[1] On weekends, he often visited his grandmother, Cecilia "Cissy" Paul, a pediatric nurse who fostered over 130 children, giving Ulmer early exposure to diverse childhood experiences. Ulmer played soccer throughout his youth and later became a walk-on team captain at Penn State Abington,[1] where he earned a degree in media studies in 2010.[2] After graduating from college, Ulmer moved to Kentucky to coach college soccer at the University of the Cumberlands, where he received a master's degree in special education.[3][4]
Career
editAfter completing his degree, he moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where he became a special education teacher, working with students aged 7 to 10.[3] In 2015, he was teaching a class of eight students with conditions including autism, agenesis of the corpus callosum and traumatic brain injury. He began each school day with a period of compliments directed at his students.[5][6][7]
With parental permission, Ulmer began filming interviews with his students and posting them on social media.[8][9] The project was initially created to introduce his special education students to the community.[3] Ulmer launched the Facebook page Special Books by Special Kids (SBSK) around 2015, and it had over 1.2 million followers as of 2017.[3] He later expanded the project to YouTube under the same name. As of June 2023, SBSK had published approximately 500 videos, with nearly 3 billion total views across social platforms, about 3.9 million Facebook followers and 3.4 million YouTube subscribers.[1] By March 2026, the YouTube channel had around 3.7 million subscribers and over 966 million views.[10]
He travelled back and forth through 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.[11] 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.[12]
In March 2019, the YouTube channel of SBSK had its comment sections disabled as part of a wider platform policy affecting videos featuring minors. According to YouTube, the measure was introduced to reduce the risk of predatory behavior in comment sections.[13] According to The Washington Post, channels featuring children with disabilities were bystanders in this near-blanket ban, and the enforcement of the policy was not applied consistently across all channels.[14] Ulmer said removing comments restricted interaction with video subjects, a core part of SBSK’s mission, and eliminated a key source of community support; he also called the decision discriminatory and harmful to the organization’s engagement with the disability community.[14][15]
Personal life
editAwards and nominations
edit| Organizations | Year | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Organization for Rare Disorders | 2018 | Rare Impact Award | Won | [17] |
| Streamy Awards | 2018 | Nonprofit or NGO Award | Won | [18][19] |
References
edit- 1 2 3 McCutcheon, Lauren (June 26, 2023). "Citizen Of The Week: Chris Ulmer of Special Books by Special Kids". The Philadelphia Citizen. Archived from the original on November 11, 2025. Retrieved November 11, 2025.
- ↑ Miller, Trey (May 20, 2015). "Alumnus drives project to produce 'Special Books by Special Kids'". Penn State Abington. Pennsylvania State University. Archived from the original on March 27, 2026. Retrieved March 27, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 Puterman, Shari (August 1, 2017). "Former special education teacher empowers kids to talk in their own words". USA Today. USA Today Co. ISSN 0734-7456. Archived from the original on March 27, 2026. Retrieved March 27, 2026.
- ↑ "9 Noteworthy Alumni". University of the Cumberlands. October 27, 2020. Archived from the original on March 27, 2026. Retrieved March 27, 2026.
- ↑ Brown, Genevieve Shaw (November 18, 2015). "Florida Teacher Starts Each Day Complimenting Students One by One". ABC News. American Broadcasting Company. Archived from the original on March 27, 2026. Retrieved March 27, 2026.
- ↑ Ready, Lauren (November 19, 2015). "Teacher starts each day with compliments for every kid". USA Today. USA Today Co. ISSN 0734-7456. Archived from the original on March 27, 2026. Retrieved March 27, 2026.
- ↑ Heigl, Alex (November 29, 2015). "Special Education Teacher Spends 10 Minutes Complimenting Every Student at the Beginning of Each Class". People. ISSN 0093-7673. Archived from the original on March 28, 2026. Retrieved March 28, 2026.
- ↑ Baron, Steven (2023). Teaching with a Strength-Based Approach: How to Motivate Students and Build Relationships. New York: Routledge. p. 79. doi:10.4324/9781003368014. ISBN 978-1-03-243257-1. OCLC 1352795636.
- ↑ Gelbart, Hannah (March 31, 2017). "Meet the former teacher giving a voice to disabled children". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on March 27, 2026. Retrieved March 27, 2026.
- ↑ "Special Books by Special Kids's YouTube Statistics". Social Blade. Archived from the original on March 27, 2026. Retrieved March 27, 2026.
- ↑ Francis, Enjoli; Schwartz, Susan (April 28, 2017). "Florida teacher is teaching acceptance of all people, one video at a time". ABC News. American Broadcasting Company. Archived from the original on March 27, 2026. Retrieved March 27, 2026.
- ↑ Devine, Adele (2016). Flying Starts for Unique Children: Top Tips for Supporting Children with SEN Or Autism When They Start School. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. p. 127. ISBN 978-1-78592-001-1. LCCN 2016007161. OCLC 1026747890. S2CID 203055805.
- ↑ Hale, James (March 14, 2019). "After YouTube Disables Comments On 'Special Books By Special Kids' Organization's Channel, Founders Say It's Discrimination". Tubefilter. Archived from the original on March 27, 2026. Retrieved March 27, 2026.
- 1 2 3 Park, Gene (April 10, 2019). "Special-needs children were getting validation through comments. Then YouTube turned their comments off". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on March 27, 2026. Retrieved March 27, 2026.
- ↑ Osiadacz, Alexander (March 17, 2019). "No more comment section: First Coast non-profit says YouTube policy is 'discriminatory'". First Coast News. Nexstar Media Group. Archived from the original on March 27, 2026. Retrieved March 27, 2026.
- ↑ Puterman, Shari (July 10, 2017). "Tripp Halstead gets a very special visit". The Daily Advertiser. USA Today Co. Archived from the original on March 27, 2026. Retrieved March 27, 2026.
- ↑ NORD (April 25, 2018). "Chris Ulmer: 2018 Rare Impact Award Honoree". National Organization for Rare Disorders. Archived from the original on March 27, 2026. Retrieved March 27, 2026.
- ↑ Spangler, Todd (September 25, 2018). "2018 Streamy Awards Nominations Unveiled, YouTube Signs as Sponsor". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. ISSN 0042-2738. Archived from the original on July 3, 2024. Retrieved July 3, 2024.
- ↑ THR (September 25, 2018). "Streamy Awards Nominations Revealed". The Hollywood Reporter. Penske Media Corporation. ISSN 0018-3660. Archived from the original on July 22, 2025. Retrieved July 22, 2025.