A disability shouldn’t keep you from having a job. Thanks to technology and work-from-home employment, persons with disability (PWDs) now have a chance to make a living.

For a person with a disability (PWD), getting into a traditional job can be a struggle. Due to certain limitations or medical conditions, commuting to work and performing some tasks could be difficult.

However, that doesn’t mean PWDs can't be as productive as people without a disability. PWDs also have the talent, capacity, and experience to become excellent employees. If you got a disability that prevents you from getting a regular job, this article is for you. For people who want to make a living while they are at home, they will also find this post useful.

Hiring Persons with Disability (PWDs) in the Philippines

For PWDs, providing for oneself or family is tough. And PWDs in the Philippines are no exception.

Republic Act 7277, known as the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons, states:
“Disabled Persons are those suffering from restriction of different abilities, as a result of a mental, physical or sensory impairment, to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.”

Section 5 says:
“No disabled persons shall be denied access to opportunities for suitable employment. A qualified disabled employee shall be subject to the same terms and conditions of employment and the same compensation, privileges, benefits, fringe benefits, incentives or allowances as a qualified able-bodied person.”

Republic Act 10524, an act amending RA 7277, gives additional provisions regarding equal opportunity employment:
“At least one percent (1%) of all positions in all government agencies, offices or corporal ions shall be reserved for persons with disability: Provided, That private corporations with more than one hundred (100) employees are encouraged to reserve at least one percent (1%) of all positions for persons with disability.”

Sadly, due to low awareness, negative perceptions, and lack of inclusivity in the many workplaces, these laws are poorly implemented. PWDs facing difficulties when applying for traditional jobs isn’t uncommon. In fact, just a small portion of the PWD population is into regular positions. Some rely on their families or government assistance.

Freelancing And Work From Home Jobs for PWDs

Thanks to the Internet, advanced technologies, and the rise of outsourcing, plenty of money-making schemes and employment opportunities have become available to people desiring to work from home. Especially to PWDs, work-from-home jobs have become a viable option. Remote jobs provide the flexibility to perform remote work than deal with the limitations of commuting to work due to a person's disability.

Online employers are embracing (albeit slowly) the fact that disabled persons do possess something valuable to make them exceptional candidates for various jobs.

In a nutshell, it's not that hard. As long as the person has the tools and skills to meet the client’s needs, anyone—whether he has a disability or not—can make a decent living through online jobs.

Let’s enumerate some examples of work-from-home jobs that are suitable for PWDs.

Play With Words

If you got the knack for writing, you could earn money with your writing skills. Plenty of blogs and websites out there will pay you to write for them. You can write news, blogs, ebooks, technical papers, landing pages, or brief product descriptions. Even if you have little experience, you can start applying at this instant by providing a sample of your writing.

If you have knowledge doing citations, you can even offer your services to help students write their essays and academic papers. Writers can also be self-employed—they can author books about their profession, hobbies, passion, experiences, or specialized knowledge. Writers can ghost-write for other authors as well.

Writing is so flexible; you can do it as a side gig on top of your main job. Furthermore, you can polish another writer’s output if you have proofreading or editing skills. You can also involve yourself in ideation and content management.

Turn Speech Into Texts

Transcription is another one of those in-demand skills, especially for clients who are into podcasting. The job involves listening to an audio (or video), then converting any speech into written words.

While the job may sound simple, it’s quite hard due to the level of accuracy required to discern the spoken words. And if you have a medical or paralegal background, you can get more opportunities working for doctors or law firms.

Take Advantage of Your Other Languages

If you know another language (aside from English and your mother tongue), then translation jobs should fit you right. The job entails translating different forms of documents—from articles to whole books—from one language to another.

Become An Online Teacher

If you’re good at helping students, then you can use your knowledge or educational background to become an online teacher. It’s like teaching in school, but this time, the classroom is online. Subjects vary—it can be universal like English, Mathematics, Science, or specialized like Differential Calculus or Organic Chemistry.

Manage Social Media Accounts

If you like spending time on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest, and you know the inner workings of these social media platforms, why not make money by managing social media accounts of businesses. Most clients usually don’t have the time to manage their business pages. Thus, they hire people to do this type of work for them. As a social media manager, you will create unique posts, come up with eye-catching images, respond to comments and messages, and schedule the posts for publication.

Assist Customers

If you’re friendly and you love to assist people, you may hit a good spot as a customer service representative. On behalf of a client, you will be there to help customers solve specific issues. You could assist in billing, troubleshoot technical problems, or try to ensure customer retention.

The medium of servicing the customers are varied—voice calls, emails, or chats—so anyone has different means to perform the job. It’s quite challenging, but the feeling that you have helped the customer is pretty rewarding.

Unleash the Artsy / Techie You

Do you like to draw or do artful designs? Then dabble in graphic design or animation work. Do you have a great voice and you’re good at speaking English? Then you can be a good voice-over artist.

Moreover, your technical skills can also bring you plenty of money-making options. Programming, WordPress, SEO, CAD, video editing—now is the right time to freelance those highly-sought skills.

Help Companies Increase Their Revenues

If you’re gifted in sales, you can use your talents to convince customers how your client's products will meet their needs. That’s something that can be done with a sales talk or by writing a compelling copy. Some people in sales earn extra through commissions, so there’s limitless potential for earnings in this field.

Aside from sales, there are other ways you can do to help businesses grow. On the top of my head, I’m thinking of generating leads, advertising, directing traffic to company websites, or even managing a client's online store.

Run your own business

If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, well, you can be your own boss. For instance, you can set up an online business, or operate your own agency of writers or virtual assistants. Or pick a niche then launch your website or YouTube channel. Or sell your own products online, and create your personal brand.

Become a Consultant or a Coach

In some instances, people can serve as a consultant or coach. This is a unique opportunity for PWDs to share their hard-earned expertise to mentor other people.

This list of jobs doesn’t exhaust all the possible roles that can be taken by any skilled PWD. In the end, do remember: as long as you got the competencies, clients usually don’t mind whether you have a disability or not.

Become a Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant (VA) has one of the most challenging jobs in the online world. Usually, they are expected to be a “jack of all trades” but also a “master of some.” So it’s not surprising that the virtual assistant must be well-rounded in many aspects.

Some virtual assistants I know manage their client’s schedules, emails, and other people who work for their client. Not only that; they may be asked to perform other tasks as well. They do such functions so that their bosses can focus on the core aspects of the business.

How to Start

If you want to work from home now, fortunately, it doesn’t take much to start. Generally, online jobs require zero to minimal start-up costs. In return, the earnings are only limited by how many clients you can take and how you market your skills.

Get started by checking out our Free Virtual Assistant Course here today.

Some of the basic requirements to start:
• Skills. You should a strong set of skills that will offer value to clients. You must also be computer-literate and can communicate in English.
• A laptop or computer. Having other tools to help you perform your work better is also good.
• Internet connection. It must have adequate speed.
• Email, Skype, online profiles. You need these when applying for jobs.
• A ready-to-work attitude, self-discipline, resourcefulness, and more.

Takeaway

Anyone with a disability can work from home. Deaf can write, do research, manage social media accounts, design, or assist employers.

Adaptive technologies help blind and partially-sighted people perform various jobs like transcription, writing, and customer service.

Wheelchair users can teach, manage teams, run the business on their own. There are other examples, but as you can see, while having a disability can be difficult, that shouldn’t keep a PWD from having a good job.

Indeed, freelancing and remote jobs have become a viable way to make a living for anyone who wants flexibility or had difficulty finding traditional work. Whether the person has a disability or none, as long as he has the abilities and the right attitude to do the job, nothing can hold him back.

Take our FREE Virtual Assistant Course and learn how to work from home