Being in a wheelchair is challenging on its own, and it gets expensive, as now you need to take care of two things: yourself and your wheelchair. Trying to take care of yourself while in a wheelchair can be demanding if you are not earning enough, but don’t let it discourage you from living your best life.
I know I’ve been there, I have Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 3, which makes my muscles weak, and I can’t do many things like lifting my arms up, standing, walking, etc., so to live independently (financially independent) I have tried various things which now I will share with you how to earn good money from home.
“Disability is only a matter of perception.”
Before we jump onto the money-earning wagon, I want to clear a few things: being disabled does take a toll on you physically and mentally, but in the end, it’s all about your attitude! If you feel useless and unimportant, you’ll be useless and unimportant. I won’t sugarcoat it for you!
So don’t let an illness hold you back, you are so much more than a stupid disability, and you can do so many amazing things! These are the best online jobs for disabled people curated by a disabled person because I have personally had/have these jobs to earn from home.
Bonus Tip: Don’t be discouraged if you feel like you can’t do certain jobs I have mentioned because you have a more severe form of disability. There’s a bonus tip for you at the end of this post so keep on reading.
Here’s the list of strategies you can follow to earn money from home:
Freelance Web & Graphic Designer
I have been a freelancer for the last 7 years, that’s why freelancing is one of the best ways to make money from home. Currently, I’m working as a Freelance Web & Graphic Designer so I can pay my monthly expenses without leaving home.
I love designing, drawing, and painting since I was little so when I grew up I learned color theory, composition, typography, UX/UI, and programming, and I started taking on website designing projects. After getting comfortable designing websites, I started my hands-on graphic designing which includes digital designs such as logo design, branding, e-books, and printable designs such as brochures/flyers, and packaging designs.
To get clients I tried Fiverr, Upwork, and 99Designs, and have my own website where I showcase my recent works to attract more clients. After having a platform as a portfolio, I learned SEO to bring more traffic (more eyes) to my work.
Freelance Writer
If Website or Graphic design isn’t your skillset then being a Freelance Writer is also an option. The freelancing skill also includes marketing skills, you will need to be able to sell yourself. Marketing is a sub-set of Freelancing, you need to be able to market the service that you sell to your clients.
Freelancing writing is fun as you don’t have to worry about the design or how it looks, your focus is on the writing. So if you can type easily, then do try freelancing writing.
To get a head start in this field, I would suggest you have a blog where you can write content for your target audience. You need to find a niche you have an interest in or care about, then write content related to it. This blog will serve as a portfolio that you can share with your clients.
You can offer freelancing writing services like e-books, content writers, and SEO writing. If you think you are not confident enough to take freelancing writing jobs yet, I advise you to learn these skills online.
You can try YouTube, Skillshare, and Udemy. After learning these skills and having a little confidence, you need to get started by joining a freelance marketplace like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer.
After signing up and making a profile on the marketplace or online job boards, now it’s time to start applying for the job you like. You contact the clients by writing an eye-catching proposal for the particular job, and once you get accepted and deliver the project, you will get paid.
Join popular websites to get started:
Transcription Jobs
In this, your job is to listen to some audio or video content and then convert everything into text format. Transcription is one of the easiest and most popular jobs in the market because of the boom in the podcast industry. Many podcasters hire people who can convert their podcasts into text format, so they can be published online.
There are 2 ways to find Transcription jobs:
You can browse podcasts on iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher and choose your favourite podcasters, then contact them if they need transcription services.
The other way is to look on the job sites such as:
Virtual Assistant
This can be a bit challenging for some, but if you have a knack for organizing things, scheduling them, and managing then you can be a great VA.
If you get hired as a Virtual Assistant, then your job will be to organize, manage schedules, answer emails, and possibly manage other employees for your employee. Many people such as Influencers, Successful Bloggers, and Businesses hire VA, so they can focus on other things.
Either you can directly contact them or you can try these job websites for Virtual Assistants:
Social Media Gigs
As the name suggests, this job is for those who love Social Media and know their way around them. Your job will be to manage social media accounts such as Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. To be successful in this area, you need to have a design experience in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, or Canva.
If you are not sure but curious about this job, you can learn the skills online on how to create unique posts and videos, schedule them, and reply to comments and messages.
There are so many subsets of Social Media Gigs such as Social Media Strategists, Social Media Content Planners, Social Media Creator, and others. You can do a specific job, or you can provide all the services as one.
Just like the Virtual Assistant job, you will be hired by Successful Bloggers, Influencers, Small Brands, or Entrepreneurs who don’t have the time to manage their social media accounts, so they hire people to manage different social media accounts for them.
To find Social Media jobs, try these sites:
Mobile App Tester
To be a successful Mobile App Tester, you don’t need any technical skills, you need to be a keen observer and detail-oriented.
Your job will be testing unreleased apps and services by installing the required app on your phone or using a web app on your laptop/pc. By testing the apps, you will be giving your feedback to the companies and developers. You will be reporting issues, bugs, or any difficulties you may find in the app
Here are the job sites for Mobile App Testers:
Voice-Over Artist
As the name suggested, Voice-Over Artists are those who convert a piece of written content into audio. You lend your voice for video and audio content.
To be successful in this, you need to have an expressive voice and a good grasp of the language you want to target. For example, Podcasters hire voice-over artists to do ads for their advertisers, YouTubers hire people to do the voice-over for their videos, etc.
Here are the job sites for Voice-Over Artists:
Customer Service Representative
Customer service jobs are easy and straightforward, it requires excellent communication skills.
You will be a representative of a company that will help with customers’ queries related to sales and technical aspects and also promote the company’s products, handle complaints, refunds, etc.
Here are the job sites for Voice-Over Artists:
Online Translator
This job is for people who are bilingual or multilingual. If you know more than one language then you can become an Online Translator or Transcriber who translates the content into another language.
For example, if your native language is Spanish and you also have a good grasp of English, then you can translate Spanish documents/articles to English or vice versa. This is an in-demand job, because of the popularity of podcasts!
Content can range anything from documents, articles, and eBooks to audio or video content. Businesses and individual clients pay a good amount for translating content into another language.
Job sites for Online Translators or Transcribers are:
- Gengo
- Unlabel
- Scrybs
- Translator Cafe
- Translator Pub
- Translation Directory
- Smartcat
- Way With Words
- Transcribeme
- Daily Transcription
Online Tutor
Online Tutors are those who help students with their studies, it also includes helping students learn skills such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, programming, finance, or helping them solve their assignments.
You can teach students based on their educational qualifications, i.e. you can choose who you want to teach, school graduates or college freshmen. You just need to be good at helping students and teaching.
This job is high in demand because of the increase in online studies due to covid. Institutions and companies also hire people as TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language). If you have teaching experience or great qualifications, then you may find Online Tutoring jobs easier.
Best sites for tutoring jobs:
I have tried the Online Tutoring job and it was really fun. I will go back to online tutoring again after the completion of my studies.
Proofreader
Proofreading work involves the grammatical skills you have. In this, you will read long documents or articles and find the mistakes or errors such as spelling errors, grammatical errors, formatting errors, or simple typing mistakes.
For this, you must have a strong grasp of the language you are targeting because there are many jobs in different languages for proofreading.
In this way, you can flex your grammar skills while getting paid. The documents may include reports, case studies, manuscripts, articles, or files to ensure they are error-free.
Online job boards to find the job:
E-Books Author
Instead of writing an e-book for others as mentioned in the Freelance Writer, you can self-publish your own e-book. You can write a novel, how-to guides, short stories, or a piece related to your life, and your struggles.
There are many topics on which you can write an e-book, you just need to have passion and dream about it. Other interesting topics for publishing an e-book are Self-Help, Religion, Memoir, Sci-Fi, Horror, Prose, etc.
There are many platforms for self-publishing eBooks like:
Book Reviewer
Besides writing your own e-books, you can also review others’ work. If you are an avid reader like me, who loves to spend hours reading books and talking about them, then this can be your dream job.
If your review gets approved, you will get paid for it. Many websites look for well-detailed book reviewers.
You can also start a blog about book reviews, it can generate an extra income stream for you.
The best sites for book reviews are:
Affiliate Marketer
Although affiliate marketing is more profitable when you have a blog as it will maximize your income. But you can still do it without a blog and earn stable money.
In affiliate marketing, you market other peoples’ products to users, and if users buy the products or services via your link, you earn a commission. Your commission won’t cost the users a penny, as it’s provided by the people whose products you are promoting.
You can market various types of products and services such as Books, Electronics, Softwares, Courses, etc. You just need to join the affiliate programs of those sites and promote.
The most famous affiliates sites are:
Video Editor
This is for those who are curious about video editing or VFX. It’s a very interesting and creative job in the market you can do in the comfort of your home.
Your work includes processing and optimizing raw videos (editing dialogues, camera footage, sound effects, adding special effects, color correction), and making a finished video to your client’s needs.
You can find good earning video editing jobs on:
Start a Blog
Yes, you can write for other blogs like I mentioned in the Freelance Writing section, but starting your blog will help you go further. You can use your blog as a portfolio to get more clients, and you can earn more money through affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, ads, selling digital products/courses, etc.
This is why I started my blog, I want to help my audience with making money and I want to sell my services/products, so I can continue to support my needs.
Bonus: If you think you can’t able to do certain jobs because your disability is more severe, but you are really interested in them, then you have an option to hire someone like a scribe. For example, for writing jobs, you can hire someone who will type for you while you narrate and for designing jobs, you can tell the person what the website or graphic should look like, so they can design it for you.
If you’re getting a good amount of work monthly, then you can earn good money and pay a good amount to your scribe. A scribe can be your family member or a stranger, it’s all upto you to decide.
In Conclusion
You have plethoras of ways to earn money, I have only touched the iceberg. I have tried many of these strategies to earn money from home, so yes, they do work.
But you need to be patient as the market is big and employers don’t care about who you are, they have to like your work. Present yourself as the expert in your niche, write brilliant proposals and put amazing portfolios for people to see.
Remember this quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”