Yes, they were removed; there was a thread on that a while back with the reasons why. (Basically, always-on just didn't have enough bang for your buck, and you can mimic an always on effect by just paying the extra mental stress when you need it, and even if something is always on it's not always plot-important that it's on anyway.)
However, in this instance, I'd say that an always-on item isn't the right way to model what you're looking for. Since the default state of a character is not-blind, mechanically you don't need an enchanted item at all; I'd say this is the domain of an aspect. Something like "Not totally blind" or "ArtifactName lets me see text" or something - and then you compel that aspect whenever it's plot-important that the character can't see stuff. (Note that this isn't a total fate point factory that churns out one or more every scene - presumably the character has found ways to cope with his blindness, and under most circumstances it won't be important to the plot. So he'd get a fate point for not noticing the muggers sneaking up on him, but wouldn't get a fate point for not noticing his friend sneaking up to say boo.)
And, as noted, you can always pick up an item of power too if his ability to see text is somehow vastly superior to normal vision (i.e. "I can read that book over there, even though it's closed and inside a glass case.")