ABSTRACT
This chapter is organized around a series of questions. At the most general level, we pose the following question: With respect to fundamental research, what do we know about how people recognize objects by touch? Another general question is of broad concern throughout this volume: Does what we know have implications for informing and educating people who have low vision or are blind? With respect to the first question, psychological research has led to a substantial body of knowledge about haptic object recognition. With respect to the second question, we acknowledge considerable challenges in converting this work into a program for education and communication. However, the work offers the promise that if educational tools are designed to take advantage of perceptual capabilities, they will be highly useful to people who are blind or visually impaired.
