blindism

English edit

Etymology edit

blind +‎ -ism

Noun edit

blindism (plural blindisms)

An idiosyncratic behaviour associated with blind people.
- 1887 November, Edward B. Perry, “Education of the Blind―II: The Blind as Students”, in The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine‎^[1], volume XXXV, number 1, New York: The Century Company, page 163:
  […] 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,” […]
- 1989, Ved Mehta, The Stolen Light, London: Collins, →ISBN, page 102:
  […] Anne's mother was chopping what smelled like onions. Nervously, I out my hand to shake hers—a “blindism,” I realized even as I did it, since I knew her hands were busy and messy.
1. A stereotypy characteristic of blind people, such as eye-rubbing or hand-flapping.
  Coordinate term: deafism
  - 1938, Ontario Department of Education, Report of the Minister of Education, Toronto, page 81:
    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. […]
  - 2014 November 18, Anna Jelec, Are Abstract Concepts Like Dinosaur Feathers?: Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the Conceptualisation Strategies in Gesture of Blind and Visually Impaired Children, Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 109:
    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.