Chris Ulmer
| Special Books by Special Kids | ||||||||||
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| File:Chrisandruby.jpg Chris (right) next to Ruby in video titled "A Day in the Life of Ruby"[1] | ||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||
| Born | Christopher Ulmer 4 March 1989 | |||||||||
| Occupations |
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| Website | https://sbsk.org/ | |||||||||
| YouTube information | ||||||||||
| Years active | 2016–present | |||||||||
| Genre | ||||||||||
| Subscribers | 2.2 million | |||||||||
| Total views | 413 million | |||||||||
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Last updated: 31 December 2019 | ||||||||||
Christopher Ulmer (born March 4, 1989) 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 on March 4, 1989[citation needed] in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended Abington Senior 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.[2]
Career
After graduation, he moved to Jacksonville, Florida, and began teaching special education to students aged 7 to 10.[2] As a special education teacher, he taught students with Autism, Aspergers, agenesis of the corpus callosum and traumatic brain injury.[3]
With permission from his students’ parents, in the classroom Ulmer "began to film interviews with his students and post them on social media,"[4] 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."[5]
Ulmer began his online presence through Facebook in 2016 and a year later reached 1.2 million followers.[2] 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, co-founded by Ulmer, reached 1 million subscribers.[6]
He crisscrossed the country interviewing special-needs 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.[7] A partial transcript, as an example of an interview of a child by Ulmer, is included in the book Flying Starts for Unique Children[8] 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 |
References
- ^ "A Day in the Life of Ruby". action.news. February 18, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
- ^ a b c "Former special education teacher empowers kids to talk in their own words". WGRZ. August 1, 2017.
- ^ 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 – via Google Books. Pg. 127.