Every time I ask a local eye doctor if my mother can get some sort of blind training or blance training, they look at me like I am an alien.

Lighthouse for the blind.They have all sorts of resources. Alot
of this depends on what her vision issues are, like if it's related to diabetes, or macular degeneration or stroke

My MIL is blind - she has gone through the cornea injections -
painful and of no help. Just too much macular degeneration along with detachment.

SHe did get a reader - looks like a metal 1960's breadbox that you place whatever you need to read on the lower level. This is good for looking at prescription bottles or signing checks or finding phone numbers. She's at the point now that it doesn't matter and is in a LTC.

I will say that if you can find a retina specialist probably it would be good to get an appointment for a full evaluation for her. If there is a medical school in your area, they will have an MD who is that subspeciality of opthamologist. You will likely need a referral from her doc for this - this might not be easy to get -
as the visit will be expensive for insurance to pay. If she has any intense pinpointy pain on occasion in her eyeball or saw fireworks when her eyes are closed that will do as that is a symptom of retinal detachment.

TSCOTT: I wish I had seen this back in October! I have been saying the same thing for all of 2010. Small world. I was in San Francisco. My mom's glaucoma is so bad that operations were not successful but the eyedrops are holding what little vision she has left. (I have been starting in with eyedrops too now.) This whole thing was a shock to us. We knew nothing about the sneaky little eyesight thief! Mom said no one believed that her vision was so bad. So, I spent a couple months filling out forms for her. She uses a magnifying glass everywhere for the last several years. She says her prescription eyeglasses don't help. Anyway, I know Light House of the Blind has a Low Vision Clinic. I am going to read the Govt. Pubs. mentioned above. Thanks.

and this
http://www.afb.org/section.asp?SectionID=42

I just took my mother-in-law to a low vision specialist at Kaiser Permanente. She had lots of good ideas for me to help her. Her regular ophthalmologist would never have known the things she told me about.

http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10052.html try this resource....