Chris and Alyssa seek support for SBSK
Why would a wonderfully successful operation need financial backing?
Readers of Special Education Today may not recognize the names of Chris Ulmer and Alyssa Porter, but they are quite likely to have seen at least one video of Chris interviewing individuals with disabilities. On SET I have posted multiple examples of Chris’s interviews (see a list later in this post) that advocate for our kids, helping viewers to recognize that the people he interviewed are actual, real, living-breathing-thinking-feeling human beings. The videos have reached an enormous audience; SBSK has millions of subscribers on YouTube. Yay!
However, and not for the first time, Big Business is cutting into that audience. Chris and Alyssa continued to publish interviews even after YouTube disabled comments on the videos; although comments were disabled for good reason (people were posting nasty, -ist, defamatory comments; see Park, 2019), the number of views the SBSK videos got after the change was drastically reduced. . But, as they explain in the following video, changes in the algorithms at YouTube have reduced the views of the Special Books for Special Kids videos yet again. So, as of 26 March 2026, they are begging for support via Patreon.
SBSK has a Website, of course. See what you can learn about the background and services that Mr. Ulmer and Ms. Porter are providing. See how Wikipedia represents Mr. Ulmer. Visit the SBSK channel on YouTube and find additional video interviews (there are 100s!). I think those who learn more will be impressed and encouraged to support the future of their work.
Some examples from the SET archives:
Here are three examples of posts on SET that have featured SBSK:
C. Ulmer’s continued advocacy: Can anyone keep up with the Special Books for Special Kids features about individuals with disabilities? (19 December 2025; free).
Sydney asks folks to say “Hi!”: What else does a young woman with a chromosomal disorder have to say? (29 October 2024, paid).
Another special person talked with Chris Ulmer: What has Chris Ulmer caught on his camera this time? (17 August 2024; paid).
References
Park, G. (2019). Special-needs children were getting validation through comments. Then YouTube turned their comments off. Washington Post,