OK, we all know about Deaf Culture. (Capitalization matters.) We all know about Gallaudet the Deaf school, deaf people who aren’t Deaf, and so on, and so forth.
Is there any equivalence to this with blind people? Are there Blind people? Any Blind schools?
Two hits off Google:
Blind Culture, apparently written by someone who is blind.
blind culture? question at Radical Reference.
And I’d like to point you to a great story from John Varley titled, The Persistence of Vision about a commune where almost everyone was blind. Found in this collection, possibly other places.
In the Varley-yarn you mention, everyone was blind and deaf.
Deafness is different than other disabilities because deafness causes linguistic isolation. Blind kids, kids in wheelchairs, or kids with diabetes can all talk with their parents, they can talk with teachers, they can talk with the neighbor kids.
But deaf kids usually can’t do that. Their primary social interaction is with other deaf kids. Imagine a village with 100 average kids, 5 blind kids, and 5 deaf kids. The blind kids might have a lot in common with each other, but not nearly on the same scale as the deaf kids, because unless everyone else learns to sign then the only people the deaf kids can talk to are the other deaf kids.
I have read that Braille literacy is declining, partly I assume because of the prevalence of audio books and such.
indeed it is. the us mint is producing a new dollar coin with braille for next year. part of the proceeds of the sale will go to teaching braille. it is on a steep decline.