What do you mean by sheltered areas? Are they turned into shelters for blind/visually impaired homeless citizens, or is it something else?
I went to a special school for the blind and it was really dull. Except some really good friends I made there, I keep no good memories of that place. Life was pretty flat there as you had to follow the same routine almost everyday. Pupils, except for some who were my best friends, were truly flat in character. They kept repeating things and telling the same old stories time and again. Education was also a problem because the texts were old, sometimes incompatible, and the structure of the syllabus was completely unheard of. If our sighted counterparts had five classes a day, we had six or seven. We had not much time for breaks and the study time was fixed to four hours. This time, by and large, was not enough most of the time, considering that everything was carried out in Braille. We had to study three or four subjects per day; sometimes more, and each subject wanted its deserved time. In many cases, we couldn't find this time, so we had to take our books at our dormentry . . . . . All in all, if you wanted to be a good student, (by a good student, I mean a student who is capable of dealing with the load of information in a public school), you had to study all day.
The school failed to prepare blind or visually impaired students for the real world, literally in all aspects. When I was their, I constantly maintained that technology is a must for blind students. The teacher of Information and communications Technology didn't give a damn about what we really needed, only what she had in her book which she never thought of updating. Technology was only one aspect; pupils were not capable of advocating for themselves, whether in a social situation or in a debate with a teacher in a public school who was reluctant to work with them. In fact, it was a teacher from the public school where I went afterwards who took note of this and told me not to be like that. We were attending an English class and I had no book with me. I was waiting for the national association for the blind to deliver the audiobooks I had asked for, but they were taking too long. The teacher had asked every student about the new lesson but me. My turn came, and she began to ask some questions about an exhibition Queen Victoria had delivered to the public in 1800s. I said absolutely no word, only: . . . . I don't have the book, I can't learn . . . . . it is really difficult . . . . but I'll do it next time please.
She was amazed by my answer and told me: "you have to consider yourself just like any other student here, and in so doing, you will be treated the same in every aspect, including the reason we are here for." That honestly changed me. She doesn't know today, and will perhaps never learn what impact had that statement on me. After that, I had a different attitude towards education and life as well.
The reason I brought up this example was because, when blind and visually impaired students go to a public/mainstream school, they are faced with an intirely new environment which they don't know how to cope with. Considering these circumstances, they become completely passive, and teachers most of the time let them live with this passiveness which will accompany them for an unpredictably long time.

@22
From my perspective, it could be mainly support and luck that got your friend there. I'm speaking from a perspective of someone who's seen blinds from poorer family. Really, they usually end up either being massage therapists, selling lottos or making and selling trinkets or clothes or something like that.

@21
Man, I thought blind schools in US were better than that, seriously. What you said there was far worse than even the hell of my blind school. I wasn't there after a year of studying, but I kept in contact with those inside and worked as a representative for them sometimes. All I know was :
- No phone, ever.
- The library opens for only two hours on saturday and sunday. I was lucky enough that I knew the librarian, who was also a teacher, and could get her to open it for me sometimes when i visited the school.
- The computer room closed after what time I can't remember, but pretty early. I'm glad they didn't have restrictions on what students can do with their computers.
- English teaching there sucks ass. There's literally no one who can teach effectively. Hell, There's a guy who can, but the curriculum structure there just doesn't leave room for him. He knows going with what they have doesn't work, but they never change it and never allow him to change it also. Hell, I could have done even better. Thank goodness I wasn't really there.

And the current headmaster of that school is a bitch. Once during a tutoring session, some group of people came to observe how we worked and stuff. She pulled me out of my chair, forced me to a computer and had me type "my name is <my name>, fowl-mouthed and irresponsible".
And guess what, I did just for the sake of embarrassing her. I didn't expect a god dam headmaster would do that. Whether I was like what she tried to make me sound or not, it was her who ripped herself to shreds, not me. She's still a headmaster there despite that years have passed, much to my dislike.