Transcription and caption correction
- What it is: Typing what people say in interviews, meetings, and podcasts, or fixing auto-generated transcripts.
- Startup cost: $0–$100
- How the money flows: Platforms and clients pay per audio minute or per project, usually weekly or on delivery.
- Potential cash flow: $150–$700 a month part-time. Pay per audio minute looks small and adds up slowly until your speed improves.
- Why it works for a blind person: It is pure listening and typing. Strong ears catch names, speakers, and words that auto-captions miss.
Start here, step by step
- Learn the words first: transcribing means typing out everything said in a recording. Audio minutes means the length of the recording, not how long typing takes — one hour of audio can take a beginner four to six hours to type.
- You need a computer, headphones, and a media player you can pause and rewind with keyboard keys without looking. Learn those keys until they are automatic: play and pause, back five seconds, and slow down or speed up.
- Practice free: pick a five-minute podcast clip, type what you hear, then compare your typing with any written transcript (the official typed version) that show provides. Fix your mistakes and notice what you mishear.
- Choose one transcription platform (a website that gives out typing work and pays you). Sign up, and expect a test: they give you a short recording and check your typing before offering paid work. Take the test slowly; accuracy beats speed.
- Take only short files at first — under 15 minutes of audio — so a hard recording cannot trap you for a whole day.
- While you work, type speaker names when the voice changes, and leave a clear marker like [inaudible 00:12] with the time when you cannot make out a word, instead of guessing.
- Check the finished file once by listening while reading your typing, then send it in the format the platform asks for (usually a plain document).
- Get paid: most platforms pay weekly into a payment account such as PayPal or a bank account, at the rate per audio minute shown in the job. Check that rate before you accept the job, and save every payment notice in one folder.
- Add a second offer when you are faster: caption correction — fixing the mistakes in computer-made transcripts for podcasters and course makers. Pitch it the same way: one short sample of a messy transcript you cleaned up.
How AI can help
Use AI transcription as a first draft, then fix it by ear — that turns a typing job into a faster editing job. AI can also draft your client pitch. AI still garbles names, accents, and overlapping speech. Your ear and judgment are the product — never send an AI draft unchecked.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Cheap to start and very blind-friendly, but the honest math caps it: beginner speed makes the hourly pay low, and it improves only with practice. There are few transport or sighted-help barriers, platform accessibility can snag, and income is easy to keep small and controlled for benefit purposes. First dollar can come quickly, just not a large one.
Pros and cons — the honest version
Pros
- Zero to very low startup cost
- Work any hours, entirely by ear and keyboard
- Steady demand from podcasts, interviews, and courses
Cons
- Slow at first — a beginner may take 4–6 hours to transcribe 1 hour of audio
- Platform tests and portals can have accessibility snags
- Long files hurt your hourly rate if you price them badly