Henry Butler is a great contemporary blind pianist here in New Orleans, but more of a jazz player than blues, and only an cccasional singer.

You may laugh, but Henry has actually enjoyed some success (gallery shows!) as a blind photographer. Don't ask me to explain ~ is it a joke? Charity? I have no idea. He points the camera and hits the shutter when he hears the right moment, and comes up images that people seem willing to buy. Presumably he has help selecting the pictures to be shown and sold, printing and cropping them, etc.

Next topic: Why guitar and not piano, etc.?

Not only does this category summon thoughts of guitar players to the near-exclusion of other instruments, there is an almost-automatic focus on a certain historical period.

Also, limiting the discussion to "blues singers" puts a focus on African-Americans, a people whose economic options have always been limited, but much more severely so a couple of generations ago than now. The popularity of a portable instrument (guitar) as opposed to, say, the piano, is undersandable for a population especially likely to find themselves "out on the street" back during the Depression.

How 'bout the great Doc Watson? Not primarily considered a blues artist, mostly 'cuz he's a white guy, but he sure can play the blues, and country, and folk, and jazz, and anything else you want. Not a bad singer, either.

PS to Roger in Baltimore ~ I got a good laugh from your comment about Rev Gary Davis. Sometimes I feel so deprived for not having met the man and taken a few lessons from him. Practically ever other half-decent player in my age group seems to have done so, or so they seem to say...