Tactile communication of speech. I. Comparison of Tadoma and a frequency-amplitude spectral display in a consonant discrimination task

Consonant discrimination experiments were performed comparing Tadoma and an Optacon‐based, frequency‐amplitude, spectral display. The results of these experiments, which employed common subjects and procedures, indicate that Tadoma is substantially superior for discriminating consonant pairs that differ in voicing or place of articulation, but not for discriminating pairs that differ in manner of articulation. The overall superiority of Tadoma revealed in these consonant‐discrimination experiments should not be generalized to all spectral displays.