I gave up my music major, but now I'm going to be going into audio engineering, which pays well, keeps me in music, and it's accessible

For a long time growing up, I wanted to go into emergency medicine and be an ER physician. I'd taken an EMT course as early as possible (you had to be 18 - I tested for certification on my 18th birthday), was looking at school with pre-med programs for college, etc. Then, about a week before I graduated high school it hit me that someone could die because I couldn't see to do something or didn't notice something as quickly as things needed to be done or noticed. I realized I couldn't risk that happening, even if I could technically go through all of the schooling and certifications.

It took me a few years of fumbling around with jobs and dropping out after a semester of college and bumming around a bit before figuring out what I wanted to do long-term, going back to school, and getting my degree.

FWIW, I have a good friend who's a paraplegic - we've been friends since we were kids. For as long as I can remember, he's been obsessed with firefighting. Yeah, sure, most boys go through the "I want to be a fireman" phase at some point, but he's lived and breathed it since he was 5.

He's in his mid 30's now and for the past 10 years or so he's worked as an instructor at the state fire school and volunteers with his local volunteer fire department, helping with training, cleaning and organizing equipment, taking care of things around the fire house, etc. I'm sure it's not the same as going out and fighting fires like he dreamed of as a kid, but he's found a way to be immersed in that world and to make a difference in it.

I would say if you're really passionate about it, don't give up yet. Keep digging. There may be something out there for you that's related, or you may find a job that's willing to pair you up with another person who can drive, etc

Have you thought about criminal research of some kind? Helping research or analyze case. I'm not familiar with the field so that may not be an actual occupation

First off, I'm from Australia, so my experience and knowledge may not translate directly (I'm assuming you're in the US).

What you need to do is look at the career as a whole and identify the roles that are suitable - just like you did checking out dispatching. Wasn't your thing, that's cool, still other options.

My first suggestion would be law, but you've ruled that out. Could you elaborate a little more on why you can't stand the legal field? There's quite a lot to it and you might find an area that does interest you - although it might take you away from criminal justice.

The area in criminal justice that I haven't seen anyone mention here yet that might interest you, and I believe is accessible, is criminal intelligence. The various state police departments in Australia, as well as the Australian Federal Police, all have intelligence sections. The roles are civilian (possibly a mix of civilian and sworn, I'm not 100%) and examine data, trends, evidence etc to assist in crime prevention. My understanding is they tend to focus on organized or serial crime.

At the federal level you'll also have another set of opportunities with the intelligence units that people are more familiar with. In the US that would be the CIA and NSA, here in Australia we have organisations like ASIO and DSD. Intelligence roles in these organisations are looking at threats to national security (which could include anything from terrorism to smuggling rings), but also cover battlefield intelligence (I'm not sure the set up in the US, but that's what DSD covers in Australia).

Then you've also got the options in the private sector, particularly around cybercrime. Police departments, national intelligence agencies, and defence also run cybercrime/cyberintelligence units, but I suspect the private sector has more of an investment in this type of intelligence than any other.

So I'd encourage you to consider that aspect of criminal justice. If you'd like to know any more, I can answer questions as best I can.

Oh, and I'm a paper pushing bureaucrat. I work in a state government department coordinating our Parliamentary Briefing Notes (things Minister reads in Parliament when asked questions). A lot of a reading and writing, a head for politics is very usful (I'm as close to the political frontline as a public servant gets basically). $1

Best of luck.

Edit: Added $1.

Totally understand the frustration, though it's tangential.

Even when living in a big city (Milwaukee, WI), most of the jobs in my field were where bus lines would not go. I moved further up north and had similar issues. Totally frustrating.

Now I've got other issues; treaments for my condition when I was little left my cornea scarred, and that scarring is moving up into my field of vision so everything gets blurry. I'm in tech support, which might be okay, but we remote into systems and adaptive technology doesn't help in that situation. So, spent a majority of my life getting set up for a career I finally got, to lose it and end up back on disability.

Work with your local/state Dept. of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR). They can help work around issues preventing you from performing usual duties. If the driver's licenses issue is just "we want to make sure you get to work every day", DVR can help find travel arrangements; they can also help with stuff like magnifiers for reading papers and similar tech.

I have dealt with something similar. I always wanted to go into a science field, and I had basically planned my life around it. But when I got to college, I found that I was unable to use the compound microscopes (the ones with 2 eyepieces) because I have monocular vision. We tried setting up a computer relay to a microscope, but the picture was so bad and so slow that I was missing everything I needed to find. After learning that I would have to use this skill in several more classes and likely in my field as well, I had to switch majors.

Now I'm in special education, which is working out pretty well as far as my vision goes, but there are other challenges due to my newly-acquired physical disablity. I get a lot of negativity and discouragement from family and some of my colleagues and professors, who say I should maybe do something else. Unfortunately there is nothing else I can do at this point and I'll be damned if I give up the three years I've put into this degree because some people think you can't teach if you aren't standing and moving around the class all day. There are plenty of options for my field, even if I work with an online school or students in a nontraditional environment (hospitals, homebound, etc).

My point is: I feel you. And there will be people who give you grief no matter what you choose, so do your best to ignore it. My suggestion would be to work with career services and disability services at your school to see what they would suggest. If you do want to pursue a job that might not be a perfect fit, try to get in with your local vocational rehabilitation office or the commission for the blind (can't remember the name exactly). If all else fails and you have to do something you don't have passion for: find your hobbies and your interests outside of work and take joy from that. A job pays the bills, but it doesn't have to define you or be the center of your world.

I was the same. I wanted to be a police officer, but due to RP having a gun and driving a car are ill advised.