I'm in North Jersey near NYC if you ever want to train.

I'm reading this while my blind teenager is in Jiu Jitsu class. In class they call him Zatoichi, the blind swordsman. If you live in the SF Bay Area pm me.

Besides BJJ or submission grappling in general. Judo, wrestling, Muay Thai clinch work for elbow and knee strikes.

Imho

I've trained blind folded or eyes closed a few times and the comfort of contact with your opponent / training partner is comforting when you know how to use it.

I know that is not nearly the same level of complexity as being unable to see but it does give you a better appreciation for your other less famous senses - Balance and prioperception to name a few favorites.

Being able to predict common responses and actions from opponents is also a valuable tool regardless of skill set or working biological sensors. Psychology and self defense are made for eachother.

Ive trained in MMA since 1998, before it was given that name I used the term Shootfighting. I never cared where the techniques came from as long as they worked against a resisting opponent.

I began competing in 1998 as a amateur and then in 2000 as a professional. I've owned my own academy since 2001.

One of my students has been training a blind man for self defense for a few years. He has created a competent grappler with Judo, BJJ and wrestling as a base but also adds elements of Sambo and Shootfighting for leg attacks.

If we can pull it off against a resisting oppinent, we can trust it to be a viable option when needed.

It depends on the structure that you're looking for. I've taken a mixture of martial arts for several years now and I'm in the process of developing a combined system that functions explicitly for the visually impaired. So, if you're asking for specific discipline recommendations, I would say I tended more towards grappling arts as you said, but also things like krav maga, Kali for weapon manipulation and control, some aspects of aikido have several methods of dealing with reactionary combat from compromised positions like kneeling, and some straightforward boxing and kickboxing which gives familiarity with strikes and with the concept of being struck. I emphasise the capacity to react to a strike by moving into it, which allows the blind person to immediately close to the clench position which neutralises the advantage of site to some extent. This is slightly different from a lot of the practitioners who seem to recommend taking things to the ground, which is dangerous if you don't know your surroundings or the number of your opponents. I specify Krav Maga because it emphasises a great deal of clinch fighting tactics that are both unexpected and quickly incapacitating, such as fishhooking, eye gouges and so on.

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