In two experiments, participants of varying visual status explored tactile diagrams and 3D objects. Congenitally blind participants were poorer at identifying pictures haptically than adventitiously blind and blindfolded sighted people. Recognition of tactile pictures benefits by visual imagery, so they are not an intuitive method of informing people with no visual experience. Blind and blindfolded sighted participants explored 3D objects using two fingers, with restricted cutaneous feedback. Whether meaningful information can be gleaned by touch alone is questionable and raises doubts for devices developed to enable blind people to explore objects in virtual environments.