Chat and email support agent — 3 out of 5 stars

• What it is: Customer support conducted entirely in writing — live chat and email queues for retailers, software companies, and services — solving problems, processing requests, and documenting every case.
• Certificate or training: Employer training, one to three weeks.
• Cost to get qualified: $0
• Time to job-ready: 1–3 weeks
• Typical pay: $36,000–$48,000 a year
• Why it works for a blind person: Text-only support removes the phone entirely: every conversation arrives as words on your screen, in systems built for keyboard work. For many blind workers this is more screen-reader-friendly than any voice queue.

Job 91 of 100 · Remote back office

Start here, step by step

1. Learn the words first: a queue is the line of waiting conversations; macros are pre-written answers you personalize; first-response and resolution times are the metrics your work is judged by.
2. Build typing speed and accuracy first — in text support, typing is talking, and employers test it.
3. Apply to companies with real text-support teams (software, e-commerce, subscription services); confirm the helpdesk platform in the interview and test it with your screen reader in training.
4. Learn the product deeply and the macro library completely — speed in chat support is mostly knowing which answer exists.
5. Handle the concurrency honestly: chat agents often run several conversations at once. Learn your real number and protect accuracy over bravado.
6. Grow toward tier-two and specialist queues — billing, technical, retention — where pay and job security both improve.

How AI can help

Use AI tools your employer provides (and your own, within policy) to draft responses you then verify. The job increasingly is supervising AI drafts on the simple tier — the humans who verify well move up; accuracy is the career skill now.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

As screen-reader-natural as support work gets, at three stars because message-volume metrics are intense and AI chatbots are absorbing the simplest tier — tier-two and technical queues are the durable seats.

Pros and cons — the honest version

Pros

• No phone, no voice strain — pure text
• Free training and remote by design
• Clear ladder into specialist and technical queues

Cons

• AI absorbs the simple tier — workaround: qualify for tier-two, billing, or technical queues where judgment is the job
• Multiple simultaneous chats strain anyone — workaround: learn your sustainable concurrency and keep accuracy non-negotiable
• Metrics dashboards rule the day, as in all support