My girlfriend is 100% blind, but it never stopped her from using a sword or from protecting herself. We have right now 3 swords and a ton of knives around home, all placed at more open areas for easy acces. There were examples when I was working and she sent away would-be robbers.
Both of us are veeery peaceful as long as an attacter doesn't give us justifiable reasons for some applied violence to avoid legal troubles. So far she only had to really use push daggers, cloak pins and the like (concealable stuff as a part of street wear) - when at home, most robbers change their minds when they realize that 80cm of sharp steel is exactly that... 80cm of sharp steel.
...
I'm glad that other blind people have the guts to care for themselfes. No one, or only a very few will do it instead of them, or instead of anyone.
And remember, "when you only have seconds, the police is only a minute away".
(I prefer to handle this kind of stuff myself, but I simply can't be always with her)