Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Work at Home Tips for the Disabled

Many years back when I began my career in New York City in the B & M world, I had the pleasure of befriending a disabled person. I’ll call her Cassandra (pseudonym) which is Greek and means female warrior. Cassandra was blind; she was a transcriptionist for a major insurance company. She with her trusty dog and cane commuted to work each day by train. She navigated the streets, stairs, elevators, and masses of people in midtown Manhattan. She truly was a warrior. Now, many years later, as I work from home, and my husband is newly disabled, I ponder how much easier Cassandra’s career would have been if she could have had the advantage of working from home.

So for those with disabilities here’s a short guide. First and foremost, check with your case manager, disability policy and your doctor to ensure you are able to work. . For further questions here is a link to ADA facts http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/telework.html. Now you can begin your search and if necessary training. Some excellent sources for disabled individuals to find training and assistive technology are:

http://www.goodwill.org/goodwill-for-you/specialized-services/people-with-disabilities can help w/training and job search

http://www.disabled-world.com/

http://www.disabledperson.com/

http://www.esightcareers.net/  -- A network for disabled persons seeking employment, many job leads here.

Now that you have your training, ok to work from your case manager, here are some companies that only hire disabled individuals:

• One agency that offers work from home jobs to the disabled is the National Telecommuting Institute (NTI)  http://www.nticentral.org/ a non-profit organization that provides a wealth of services. Most of their jobs are customer service, technical support and some transcription. They have a host of companies they represent from HSN, IRS, and AAA auto club.

http://www.jlodge.com/  provides quality control and or call monitoring for various organizations

Good luck with your search and return to a career. Be sure to stop back or email me to share your success stories.

Search Amazon.com for disability aids

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