Virtual reality can be used to simulate features of specific materials in order to provide a sense of direct contact with the simulated object. The present study concentrates on informational aspects related to the transformation of visual into haptic data. The current trial was conducted to compare two studies. Study 1 was carried out to help teach blind and visually impaired people histology while study 2 was initiated to generate the basis for simulated facial cleft surgery. Although both tasks are based on a transferral of histological slides into a polygonal mesh the degree of complexity differed considerably with the respective task. Despite the fact that both studies relied on well-established methods in computer graphics and haptic rendering, study 2 requires a higher degree of computational literacy than does study 1. This led to a hypothesis of why the transfer of visual to haptic data is not often reported in the biomedical sciences. Future studies need to incorporate touch into virtual environments to enhance realism of virtual medical environments and to make biomedical sciences more accessible to blind and visually impaired individuals. [Based on abstract in book]