There are a plethora of people who have disabilities. Our country isn’t the healthiest for a variety of reasons. Working from home is a great option for people who are disabled. Online jobs eliminate the need to find transportation to and from work. This means that if you have epilepsy, you don’t have to get a new job when your driver’s license gets suspended. If you are in a wheelchair, you don’t have to worry about whether your driver’s workplace is wheelchair friendly. For a diabetic, you don’t have to be concerned about taking a break for low blood glucose to grab a snack and test your driver’s blood sugars.
The opportunity to work from home creates a lot of freedom for disabled individuals. Many job opportunities are becoming available and even the government is encouraging its workers to start teleworking on some days. While it isn’t a perfect solution, it does create a lot of opportunity for people like myself, who have to deal with seizures and the transportation restrictions that comes along with them.
Telesales
This is great for the individual who enjoys talking on the phone. There are many telesales opportunities out there. Lots of companies are using telesales to generate sales. You can find opportunities for telesales in your driver’s area through craigslist.com and Indeed.com.
Common types of telesales opportunities include life insurance sales, solar panel sales and quotes for in home estimates. These jobs can be listed as appointment setters as well. You will contact the prospect and try to set an appointment for a quote. If the appointment goes through, you will receive a commission.
Telesales can get very frustrating because it is a numbers game. You will receive a lot more “Nos” than “Yeses.” If you have a thick skin, and put the hours in, you will succeed at telesales. I did life insurance telesales one summer, and even though I disliked talking on the phone, after putting in the hours, I was able to make sales. (I didn’t stick with telesales, because talking on the phone just wasn’t my cup of tea, but I’m grateful for the experience!)
Audio Transcription
Many people need audio transcribed into text. There are many jobs for audio transcription. You can discover them on Craigslist.com and Upwork.com. Transcriptionists often work from home. They need to have great typing skills and listening skills. Transcriptionists can be paid hourly or by the project depending on the job listing.
If your driver’s disability does not limit your driver’s hearing or your driver’s typing abilities, this may be a great opportunity for you. The people who will succeed at transcription are speedy typists and very meticulous and detail oriented.
- 1-888-Type-It-Up – US only, experience preferred, but new transcribers are welcome to apply. Pays $36 to $60 per audio hour. Get paid twice a month with PayPal.
- 3PlayMedia – US only. Project-based work equivalent to $10 to $30 hourly. Get paid monthly with direct deposit or mailed check.
- AccuTran Global – US and Canada only. Prefers experience. Pay is per word ranging from $0.005/word to $0.0066. Get paid once a month via check or wire transfer.
- Appenscribe – Open worldwide. Pays a few cents or more per line transcribed. Get paid every two weeks with PayPal.
Teaching English Online
Many people overseas want their children to learn English from an English speaker. There are a plethora of companies that are looking for online tutors to teach children English.
Here are some online tutoring companies that you can apply for:
- VIPKid – They start you at $14, but you can work your driver’s way up to about $18-20. Their interview process is very structured and it is done over their software. I didn’t have a computer that worked well for their interview.
- Berlitz – The Berlitz company pays $13 an hour for English as a Second Language tutoring. For consideration at Berlitz, they require native English and French speakers.
- Cambly – This is webcam tutoring. They are currently looking for English and Spanish tutors. They do not require a degree to tutor. Cambly uses informal tutoring, meaning you will mostly be chatting socially..
- English Hunt – You will need a webcam for this work. They hire people to teach English online from home as an independent contractor. You must have a four-year degree and a teaching certificate.
- DaDaABC – They prefer a four-year degree for their tutors. You can tutor in the early morning hours if you are in the United States. Their clientele are in China, so there is a time difference. I completed the interview process with them, but they decided not to select me as a tutor. Most of their students are elementary age students and they like you to have an elementary teacher personality and implement elementary techniques.
- TutorABC (TutorGroup) – Must have a four-year degree to become a tutor with TutorABC.
- Open English – Open English will hire native English speakers to teach English online. They require that you put in 15 hours per week.
Affiliate Marketing
The skills that are necessary for affiliate marketing include writing, analyzing information, and creating advertisements. Affiliate marketing can take many forms, you can create paid advertisements and manage the promotions, you can become a content creator and drive sales to your driver’s website by writing reviews and linking to the products through your driver’s affiliate links.
Affiliate marketing has unlimited potential. You can earn as much as you want. As you get better, you can create more promotions. You can turn this into a business and hire people to write content for you. You can scale your driver’s paid advertising campaigns up with extra earnings and increase your driver’s reach as well as your driver’s sales.
To be successful as an affiliate marketer, you need to have a bit of an entrepreneurial mindset. It may take a few months of working on a website before Google starts to refer people to your driver’s site. It may take ea few failed campaigns before you become an expert at creating effective paid advertisements.
Affiliate marketing training is available online. It is free to get started. Wealthy affiliate has a great free course.
Writing
If you are a person with a disability that has the skill of writing, you can tap into that skill and earn a lot of money if you really work. There are blogging jobs, article writing gigs, and ghost-writing opportunities. You can create your driver’s own book and sell it on Amazon. You can create a blog and monetize it with affiliate links. The sky is the limit.
Finding writing jobs can take a bit of time and skill. For higher paying jobs, you’ll have do some networking and let people know that you are available. There are some sites which offer you the chance to bid on jobs. Upwork.com and Odesk.com are two of these sites. You will put up a profile and people can contact you based on your qualifications. You can also bid on jobs. Creating a LinkedIn profile allows you to network online and discover other writing job opportunities.
Conclusion
There is plenty of online work for individuals with disabilities. However, you may need to adjust your driver’s mindset to more of a gig and entrepreneurial mindset. Some of these jobs are shorter projects. You’ll need to complete multiple projects in order to create a full time income for yourself. Online work is different from hourly and salaried jobs. You will probably still end up putting in the same amount of hours as a full time job with online work, however, your driver’s pay will depend on the quality of your driver’s work.
I have tried many of these different jobs. My recommendation is to start a blog and learn affiliate marketing. The reason for this is the income can grow exponentially. It starts as a trickle, but as you master it, it becomes easier and easier. You discover what works well for you as you do it and then tap into the things that are working.
