I had luck with a couple instructors. Where I used to live, I went to a tae kwon do school because I'd heard that the teacher believed that martial arts was for everyone. He had no trouble adapting things, but I found out quickly that he was an exception. When I moved here, I went to a local martial arts academy that offers muay thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and assumed they would just turn me down right away, but when I asked what they thought I should join, they told me to try the Jiu Jitsu class, saying that me being completely blind isn't a problem. I've been training there since August. My advice is to just bang on different doors, until you get someone perceptive. I got lucky, but there must be others, since even when I've gone to seminars with other teachers, I have no trouble once they figure out how I work. It happens that grappling sort of requires you to feel your way through it anyway, and all the training is done with a partner, so very often the instructor just uses me to demonstrate the technique. It turns out to work better than you'd expect. The TKD class was slightly more difficult because not being able to see incoming strikes, or how to move yourself around safely is tricky to learn, but I had a perceptive teacher and he was very good at helping me to become sensitive to a lot of things. So I'd say that you can make it work, you just need to be a lot persistent, and get a bit lucky in finding teachers that are willing to do things a bit differently. Just show up at different places and see what you run into. And once they agree to teach you, show up to as many classes as you can, because I have found that being a regular presence helps for some reason. And do your best not to get discouraged. The community tends to be quite encouraging, I have found, but it can be a bit rough when you start, because the learning curve is a bit steeper than for some other activities, but I quite enjoy it, and it'd be worth persisting until you find something. Even if you don't need the self defence, you will get a very hard workout and so it'll keep you healthy as well as teaching you a lot of coordination. Have fun times!

There's a nonprofit org that teaches self defense to the vip/ blind: one touch. It even teaches the use of cane as a weapon. I learned a bit!

That's the facebook link to our Night Strike self defense for the blind program. Get in contact with us there and we can put you in touch with VI martial artists that have reached degrees of success in various arts.

Also feel free to check out this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSt1LFEX12Q&feature=youtu.be

https://m.facebook.com/Night-Strike-Self-Defense-292623577738421/

Not blind, but I do Aikido and we had a blind member. He trained and got very good (black belt). Aikido does grabs and strikes. And we teach how to fall. But my instructors viewed his blindness as a challenge, not a hinderance. Not all instructors are this way. Check with the school. Go to a practice, you will get a feel for how they run the class. You will notice how people behave, if it is too noisy, etc... But the instructor sets the tone.

you might want to consider brazilian jiu jitsu or wrestling. both will teach a style of self defense that is well suited to a person with vision issues. both styles focus on taking the fight down to the ground and wrestling with the person so you don't really have to rely on seeing whats going on as much. if i remember correctly there was a blind jiu jitsu practitioner that managed to compete at the international level against sighted people.

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styles like karate that focus on striking isn't a good direction to take if you are looking for self-defense. it will be a good workout and you will meet a lot of fun people but in an actual fight its going to turn out badly. much better to practice taking things to the ground.

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maybe your lifestyle is different but the truth is most people don't really get into fights often. i haven't been in an actual physical fight in decades. you might want to consider weight training or some other type of physical conditioning. it will be just as rewarding of an experience and will help to prepare you almost as well for a fight. a lot of times the winner of a fight is decided by who is in the best shape even if the loser has more combat training.