Assess Your 'Fit' for a Home-Based Position
By Deb Koen
originally posted at WSJ.com
CareerJournal
Question: I am a disabled veteran confined to a wheelchair. What
types of winning career opportunities are available to me at home?
-- J.W., Houston
J.W.: While many disabled people successfully work at job sites in the corporate, industrial, government and nonprofit sectors, home-based businesses offer an attractive alternative, as well. The best opportunities will result from the intersection of your skills and interests with the needs of an employer or customer. Self-assessment is the initial step in determining direction. Consider whether you see yourself working with people, data or more tangible objects. Depending on your skills, if you choose people, for example, you might pursue tutoring, advising or telemarketing positions. Data could lead you to bookkeeping, writing or computer work. A preference for working with tangible objects might direct you toward greenhouse gardening, assembling or repair.
Disabilities aren't a limiting factor in entrepreneurship, as the Self-Employment
for People with Disabilities web site shows. Profiles of successful
entrepreneurs on this site range from those involved in sales of recreational
equipment to people who run baking and computer-maintenance businesses. Employment
Resources for People with Disabilities offers additional sites and
suggestions. You also might want to take a look at the book "Job-Hunting
for the So-Called Handicapped or People Who Have Disabilities" (Ten Speed Press, 2001) by Richard Nelson Bolles and Dale Susan Brown.
This article reprinted in full without permission for the purposes of education and research, as permitted by Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976.