have you ever tried a phone featuring a sliding keyboard? is it not easier/faster then a touch screen?
And if we're talking about typing on a physical device, a fair number of visually impaired folks I know have bluetooth braille displays (e.g. note taking w/iPads in class), or you can sub a regular keyboard to that instead if wanted (if you don't want the display either).
From my sighted but alternative perspective on why physical keyboards built into phones is not the best idea either, I enjoy being able to type in English and Korean, then swap over to Chinese handwriting when needed. I don't have the same thumb typing muscle memory for other languages/layouts than I do for qwerty, so it's great to see what I'm typing occasionally.