I'm glad you put Zatoichi at number 1 he's a great example that he uses his disability as an advantage BUT I have to say in Takeshi Kitano's version of Zatoichi, he wasn't blind only pretended to be one
You forgot Dr Mid-Nite was created in the 1940s at DC Comics he's a blind superhero a surgeon by trade, he can see perfectly in the dark he's at hand-to-hand combat, much like Batman has gadgets he uses to fight crime