The Americans With Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against disabled persons in key areas such as employment, housing, and transportation, along with several other areas. However, gig workers are self-employed independent contractors and are not covered by the ADA.
It’s entirely possible for a disabled person to do gig work but most of the requirements wouldn’t be possible. Can you lift 50+ pounds? Are you able to walk up and down stairs? Can you carry groceries on a short, flat driveway? Are you able to pull a cart full of groceries on a flat surface? If you said yes to any of these questions, then delivery platforms might work for you. If you can barely walk or need oxygen then the perfect gig might be rideshare.
As the Chief Admin and owner of this site, I do a lot of rideshare trips for Uber and a ton of Walmart Spark deliveries. I’m certainly not a newbie. I’ve been delivering for Walmart for 7 years. I’ve talked with countless delivery drivers who could barely get out of their car. Grocery delivery is entirely possible for disabled or handicapper persons with two warnings. You must know you area and you’ll need a lot of patience finding a suitable delivery that you’re 100% sure you can handle.
The disabled Spark driver I talk with most often accepts only deliveries that contain a few items and are going to addresses that have flat driveways. He loves trailer parks because the driveways are usually super short. On an average day he finds only 3 or 4 deliveries he knows he can handle but he averages $100 per day. That’s decent money to supplement his Social Security.
DoorDash and Grubhub sometimes have deliveries a disabled person could successfully complete. Like I said, you must know your area. Make sure you’re delivering to a house and not a multi-story apartment building with no elevator.
One of the best ways to know your area without driving around to see every building is to start two lists – One will be your YES list and the other your NO list. You won’t have enough time to decide on the delivery before the timer runs out but this is how you do your homework. Let’s say a delivery pops up going to 123 Main Street and you have no idea what the building is. Look it up on Google Maps and make sure you have the map layers set to Satellite. The bottom of the map should show you the Street View of the building. If it looks like a single story house, add the address to your YES list. The next time you see a delivery going to that address, you’ll know you can handle it.
Even though I have an iPhone, I exclusively use Google Maps for navigation. I’m one of those nerds who edits Google Maps when an address is wrong. That’s another subject that I’ll cover in a follow-up article. To open Layers in Google Maps, click the icon shown next to the red arrow below.
When you click the Layers icon, the option screen will open. This allows you to choose the Map Type as well as the Map Details. Set the Map Type to Satellite. The Default map type looks more like a cartoon drawing than a useful map. I find it to be more distracting than helpful. Once you’ve set the Map Type to Satellite, try the various types of map details to find the one that works best for you.
Start building your YES list today. This will be your list of addresses to which you’re 100% sure you can deliver. The Spark driver I mentioned above said he sees 50+ delivery offers per day but some days finds only one he can handle. He only has about 50 addresses on his YES list, and he’s been doing Spark for almost three years. His biggest pet peeve is customers who don’t list their apartment number in the delivery address. They just add “apartment 9 third floor” in the delivery note that you can’t see until you’ve picked up the order and are starting the delivery.
Multi gigging is often a disabled person’s secret weapon. Sign up for every gig that’s available in your area! You don’t have to swear your allegiance to any one single gig. Grab an easy DoorDash order. Snag that Spark delivery from Home Depot because you know from looking at the items in the order that it’s a single pair of work gloves. Accept an Uber Eats order from McDonald’s because it’s going to the front door of a house you can park directly in front of.
Since the pandemic, many gig workers are turning their backs on rideshare. It’s seems like society in general has become more introverted since the pandemic. I can say from personal experience and having completed over 8,000 passenger trips, Rideshare is the easiest gig available. Even if you’re on oxygen you can just sit in the car and drive passengers to their destinations. Believe me, passengers appreciate getting to their destination a lot more than customers who order groceries delivered to a third floor apartment with no elevator.
Sign up for both Uber and Lyft. You’ll find that passenger rideshare preferences vary from one area to another. In some cities passengers primarily use Lyft. In other areas they don’t know Lyft even exists. Many passengers check both apps to see which service has the closest driver and offers the lowest price.
The only warning about rideshare is that passenger who asks you to load their luggage. Just tell them you’re disabled and aren’t required to lift luggage. If the passenger gives you one of those dirty looks, just cancel the trip. Be sure to list “unsafe to pick up” as the reason you’re cancelling. The passenger is going to be irate that you wouldn’t load their luggage. I’d say that passenger isn’t safe to pick up even if they decide to load their own luggage. They’re going to leave you a bad rating and probably no tip, so don’t waste your time worrying about it. If you can’t the trip they can’t rate you!
