Blindism

[…] prolonged stay at [asylums] will unfit [the blind] in a great measure for [the actual active world]. Certain peculiar habits are too likely to be acquired, harmless enough in themselves and useful to sightless persons when together, but which attract attention and stamp one as odd in the outside world. […] all of which are roughly but forcibly classed in the school phraseology under the head of “blindisms,”[…]

[…] Anne's mother was chopping what smelled like onions. Nervously, I stuck out my hand to shake hers—a “blindism,” I realized even as I did it, since I knew her hands were busy and messy.

He frequently has ‘blindism’ habits. His joints are usually lax, and his muscles flabby, and it is still more deplorable that he often has no joy in movement, and his emotional and muscular energy find a blind alley output in finger tappings, head shakings, body rockings, etc.[…]

To an untrained eye blindisms may resemble the uncoordinated movements typical for many patients with brain damage. As a result, blindisms have a stigmatising effect. For this reason many educational facilities in Poland offer revalidation classes.